My Housing at Sichuan University

View front my front window into the courtyard
 with the koi/lily pond

For my flight to Chengdu which is about 1000 miles west of Beijing, I was driven to the airport in an embassy vehicle by the same driver who drove Vice President Biden around Beijing.  The driver was delighted that Mr. Biden chose to eat at a local noodle shop during his visit in August.  There was a picture of Biden eating in the restaurant on the front page of the national newspaper in China.  It’s interesting how seemingly inconsequential actions can have a significant impact on how people view Americans.

 Unlike domestic flights in the USA, China Air is still serving meals domestically.  I had a cunning tray of “oriental chicken”, canned pears, a cookie, and what I thought was a dinner roll until I discovered the bean paste inside.  When we landed in Chengdu, we had to walk down the stairs from the plane and board a bus to get to the terminal.  I fought the urge to grandly wave at the top of the stairs a la the President in the Airforce One photo ops.

Bedroom/office. (Pink bedding has been subsequently
replaced thanks to China Ikea!)

I was met by a Sichuan University contact who escorted me to my home for the next 4 months which is centrally located on campus in the Foreign Experts Building.  I have a living room, a small kitchen and bathroom, a huge bedroom/office and an enclosed balcony where I hang my clothes to dry.  This building is a hotel for visiting foreigners on campus.  One of my graduate students, who came over to show me how to operate the Chinese washing machine, said students affectionately refer to this building as the “panda building” because students cherish foreign teachers like foreign teachers cherish pandas.  As you can imagine, I adore my students!

I’ve spent the week at my new office at the Center for American Culture.  I will be teaching one graduate level class in ESL methodologies that meets once a week, and 3 classes in Freshman College English that meet twice a week.  I was told there would be 15-20 students in my graduate class.  52 showed up!  My freshman classes are at the new Sichuan University campus that is a 30 minute bus ride away.  My freshman students all have military training the first two weeks of the term, so I will meet them next week.  I heard the class size has been limited to 30 students.  We’ll see! 

Living room (Walk straight ahead into the kitchen or go right
into office/bedroom/enclosed balcony

The living room to the left is crying for some artwork.  I hope to get some pictures when I visit some of the touristy temples soon...  In the meantime, it is a bit bleak.  I would love to slap a coat of paint up... There are hooks all over the apt that have little cartoon characters on them.  Nails are not used I suppose because they would crack the plaster.  I can't explain the cutesy hooks.  

Kitchen with the bathroom to the left. It has a western style toilet.  Ahhhh.

Every morning I head up to the 3rd floor to fill my hot water thermos from the hotel boiler.  Then, I trot back downstairs for my cup of instant coffee before I switch to green tea.  The picture below shows the view from my kitchen window which also looks out on a courtyard where a pesky rooster welcomes me each morning. He crows in Engish.

After I have my hot drinks, I pour the boiling water into a pitcher to cool it down before I put it in my Barbie sized fridge.

Picture of the boiler with my trusty thermos.  All of the teacher lounges on campus have hot water thermoses for the teachers.