Haha! 😂 I Love my #huawei Chinese phone. It has the best #English descriptions for things sometimes. Apparently our #Weather is ‘dreary and very unhealthy’ – you know, life just sucks sometimes 😜 I just got a Warning from the phone for Tuesday when it’ll get down to 21degrees!!! – so cold they asked me to check my ‘mouth muffler, ear mufflers, and gloves. 😂 It’s like Having a second mom. 😝
#lifeabroad
#lifeinChina
#travel #International #abroad #China #humor #funny #technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQBSdd99_Bw&feature=youtu.be
Since I know several college student from International Countries (or from the US living abroad) also take the GMAT every year, I thought I’d keep you up-to-date on the process I go through while I’m taking it in China. Partly just because it’s kind of a glimpse into how things are different just traveling and surviving abroad.
The registration process itself was pretty simple – I did the normal US registration website and everything. Registered an account and selected Zhengzhou, China as my location.
However, that was the end of the easy part. First of all, finding English study books is a pain though do-able. My students order them off of Taobao (Chinese Ebay) or Amazon.cn. I went ahead and purchased one while I was in the States on holiday and brought it with me. As long as its a semi-developed country where many students take the test, I think you can find study books. I wouldn’t count on it in other countries necessarily.
I don’t actually live in Zhengzhou, instead I live about an hour away. Since the GMAT is less common in China, the testing centers are less populous. So I was kind of lucky to find one this close to me.
My test is at 8:30am local time, which was the only time slot available. The dates are not as open, and you are more limited as to what time of day is available here than in the US I think. That means I need to arrange a hotel for the night before. Since my test will not end until after noon, that means I would have to rush in order to get to the bus and home on time. So I ended up getting a hotel for two nights instead–A lot of students from out of town do this I’ve found.
So the total GMAT cost goes to Test + Travel (for me about $10 for bus + subway + taxi) + Hotel ($150 for two nights).
Unfortunately, the location itself is clear out in the boonies (sp? — out in the middle of nowhere) and I could never have found it on my own. As with all good small-town Chinese addresses, it isn’t even a real address. The location according to the MBA site is at “NEEA-Henan Higher Education Admission Office Zhengzhou HEN, CHN.” Legit – I put in the name of the location that the MBA site gave me and it doesn’t show up on Google.
Luckily my ticket had a little more information — HENAN COLLEGE OF FINANCE &TAXATION, ZHENGKAI RD&KANGZHUANG RD INTERSECTION, RM 517, ADMINISTRATION BLDG.. Yep – that’s a helpful address – “at the intersection of Zhengkai Rd & Kangzhuang Rd.” I tried looking up the college, and found an address on the opposite end of town (apparently the old address? – I’m not really sure).
One of the things you learn when you travel abroad is that GoogleMaps can be much less helpful depending on the country. I’ve heard that it’s pretty on spot in Europe. But in Japan, Korea, and China where I’ve traveled extensively, GoogleMaps is frequently not helpful whatsoever. The names on Google are in Chinese (which I don’t speak and certainly can’t write or read), the roads aren’t up to date, the buildings move, everything is a couple years old. In a well-developed city, a couple years might not mean much for a map. But in a still swiftly growing and expanding area like Henan, China just two months might see a complete and total difference.
I finally just posted the address on Weixin (China Facebook/Twitter) and my students (have I mentioned how much I love them to pieces?) immediately responded with the Chinese map, the Chinese name of the School, the Chinese address, and directions to give to a taxi driver. According to the map, it’s out in the middle of nowhere – land several kilometers outside of the actual city. Seriously, it’s at a small community college “on the road between Zhengzhou and Kaifeng” (hence the intersection of Zhengkai road 😛 ). So we all agreed, I’d need to take the subway all the way to the end. Then one student said I should take Exit E (thank God for that piece on information — people appreciate the Exit number not enough!) then go east to the main road. No one knows where the bus stop is (our city doesn’t have a good bus map or layout — so no one really knows when or where it’ll stop). Just that I need bus 102 to the stop (of course it’s in Chinese). At first they said try to find Chinese students to help me find the bus — then we realized its the holiday and there probably won’t be anyone. 😛
Oh the life I lead!
Of course, because it’s so far out, there were no hotels in the area to speak of. A couple that were low end – $20 a night- places. But while a cheap motel might be okay in the US, I don’t trust them here in China. Too many horrific experiences (namely one including a plate on the floor outside the hotel restaurant with so much mold on it, it should have been a lab experiment .) 😛 So I had to go further up line 1 on the Subway to find a hotel.
To be honest, I have no idea how much time this whole thing is going to take me. And I’m kind of dreading the whole “Check-in” and get a computer process. They say the people will speak English, but I’m not really counting on it. 🙂 I’ve been told that before. Anyway, I’ll let you know how the process itself goes. Off to work on my math. Wish me luck!
Hahaha!
One of my students was writing about the Youku / Tudou (2 Chinese media companies like Youtube) merger for our Negotiations class.
However, they put what they wrote into Bing!Translator to move it from Chinese to English. And Tudou translates as “Potato Net.” So every time they meant to say Tudou, it says “Potatoes.”
“Youku and the potatoes had a 100% merger . . . . potatoes have been issued”. . . . and the potatoes are buying up stock.
I’m just saying – these are some advanced potatoes and I want in on the action. Do smart, shareholder potatoes taste better when you eat then?
The Traditional Chinese Dragon & Lion Dance! Part of a show performed by students at the University for the “Welcoming Freshmen Candlelighting Ceremony” #ChinaTravel #LifeinChina #ChineseCulture
During my stint as a teacher here in China, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in several different campus activities with the students. One of the clubs I have worked with a lot is called the “Flying English Club.” Filled with a mixture of Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors, the club has a great collection of students from all around. Even some of the international students join in as a chance to meet Chinese students!
Last night, they invited me to a BBQ at one of their teacher’s buildings, so I went out for a night of fun and food. We had such a wonderful time! The students cooked delicious food including sweet potatoes, grilled meat (pork, beef, squid, chicken, mutton), broccoli, mushrooms, green beans, lettuce / grilled greens, tofu, and more. They had also prepared some delicious fruit trays with apples, pineapple, dragon fruit, banana, oranges, tomatoes, and other yummy snacks. So good!
If you have the chance to go out with your students and play, you should take it! It’s not every day that people can have so much fun 🙂
As the world mourns those who died and were injured in Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Brussels, universities in the U.S. continue to work on strategies to keep students studying abroad as safe as possible.
And now one school, Texas Tech University, has decided the best recourse is to suspend its Belgium programs altogether.
The school announced that its summer and fall study abroad programs there have been canceled in light of the terrorist attacks that killed at least 30 people, says Elizabeth McDaniel, the school’s senior director for International Education.
“It’s the type of thing we are thinking about all the time, so it didn’t come as an, ‘Oh my gosh, we never thought this could possibly happen’ type of thing,” McDaniel says of Tuesday’s attacks. “Of course it has happened before and will likely happen again.”
Four Texas Tech students were in Brussels when the attack happened, but all are safe and accounted for, according to a report from KCBD.
McDaniel says the department is proactive in its safety measures for study abroad students, and that before venturing out of the country students must attend a two-hour safety seminar, where among other things they discuss potential terrorist attacks.
“We reevaluate safety measures every day based on what’s going on in the world,” McDaniel says. “We just look at the situation continuously and evaluate where our programs are going, where our students are going, and then make decisions accordingly.”
Texas Tech has study abroad programs in more than 70 countries. . . . .
DIAPERS v. THE SQUAT & GO
Was sitting at the window in KFC (yes, thank God we have KFC here–our only Western restaurant in the area!) when I saw the funniest “cultural difference” on display.
Growing up, I frequently worked as a babysitter for children in the States. The little girls loved their dolls and treated them like real children. They dressed them, fed them bottles, rocked them, and–always funny–changed their diapers.
Well little girls in China are the same–sort of. This local girl was waiting with her mom at the bus stop and playing with her doll. She rocked the dolly, patted the dolly, played with its dress. But then, she proceeded sit the dolly in a crouch and teach it how to do its bathroom business out on the sidewalk.
That’s how children go to the bathroom here. The parents take them outside on the sidewalk, they drop trou, crouch, and do their stuff. The babies all have split pants (pants with large holes around the bottom-area), and they don’t even have to pull their pants down.
Once I though about it, of course that’s their version of changing diapers–it makes total sense! But it was still hilarious to watch. Seriously, she patted it, talked to it, helped straighten its dress when it was finished. Such a good mommy-to-be! But talk about cultural differences! 😛
Well, small break in the vacation plans – mom fell yesterday and crashed her hip so I spent 13+ hours in the Korean hospital. Today she is zonked out on pain meds, so I have some time to do a little typing 🙂
I haven’t really had time to answer questions yet, but I wanted to start addressing some of the Commonly Asked Questions people give me about China. While it may not answer everything, I hope that it will clear up some big misconceptions people have about this beautiful country.
When I began telling family and friends about my new adventure plans to teach in China,I found fear and worry was a bit more prevalent than excitement, and I had to do some serious selling of the idea before they would start to get behind me. The most common question I was asked was “well, do you think it’s safe?” After thinking about it, I’ve decided that this question stemmed from concerns of about three things (size/language, health, and security); I’ll address each in turn over the next few posts, but I want to start with the size/language concerns.
Just looking at a map will tell you that China is one of the worlds largest nations (technically #3, right after Russia and Canada). Then there is the fact that it is actually the #1 largest nation in terms of populations (1.3 billion in 2015, making up 19% of the worlds’ people!). Just, woah! There are 45 cities in China with more than 1,000,000 people, and the vast majority of them are closer to 3-4 million. Compare that to the US, where only 9 cities have more than 1,000,000 and only 4 of those are more than 1.5. It’s just kind of mind-boggling to think about how HUGE China really is. And I think this is one part of China that people actually kind of get – we’ve seen the movies about Shanghai and Beijing, watched the tiny little streets and billions of flashing lights in strange characters leading us into back alleys to be lost in the maze forever. China’s size is daunting, and I won’t say that this doesn’t scare me at times.
Unlike Korea and Japan, where subway signs, maps, and bus routes are more or less in English, most of the transportation aids in China are in Pinyin. In fact, there isn’t even a map at all of my home city of Xinzheng, and it has about 600,000 people. While this seems extremely big to a Missouri girl from a town of 12,000; to the locals, this is practically a backwoods country farming village. Even the nearby city of Zhengzhou, boasting 5,000,000 as early as 2010, is considered a small city. And that’s TWICE the size of Chicago! And still no good map! Continue reading
“She was free in her wildness. She was a wanderess, a drop of free water. She belonged to no man and to no city” ~ Roman Payne
Language Translation
Deceptively Blonde 