The day starts off with concerns about hot water. Judy’s shower is lukewarm. I’m not sure what’s going on. There’s pressure, but Judy thinks it’s not hot enough. I’m thinking the hot water reservoir is depleted due to the time of the day, since all the hot water comes from the same place (like a hotel or dorm). I’ll probably end up paying some more on our hot water card, and hoping that solves it.
I work a little on school planning then head down to UHN management. I pay 500y on what I think is the hot water card. When I get back to the apartment, I try to load the card into the meter. Nothing is loading? The meter doesn’t move, so I’m going to have to try something else? Oh well.
I dress for school and start over to the train station. I’m headed to the “Club Fair”. The bank ATM where I think I got the counterfeit money is located in the mall. I go into the bank and begin trying to explain the counterfeit money issue. There is lots of confusion and concern. I end up in a small cubicle working with a bank teller through glass. They’ve found an intern that speaks English well enough that I know I’m not going to get any of the counterfeit money replaced. I give them my passport, answer many questions about which ATM, when, etc. There are many forms to be completed and signed. I can tell they reference the counterfeit bills. I have to call someone from BHSFIC, who talks to the bank officials, and then explains to me what I already knew. I wasn’t going to get any money back. The bank couldn’t figure out how the money got into their ATM machine. They don’t seem to believe that it could have come from them.
I suppose it’s possible the sales people at Yashow Market swapped out good bills for bad ones, and then came running after us, waving the bad bills. That doesn’t explain how I got so many, and I didn’t give them eight of them. I had noticed when I was checking my money before we left the apartment early Saturday, that I had a group of “newish” bills. These are the ones that turned out to be bad. They definitely came from the ATM, as far as I’m concerned, but I think I’m going to have to write this off to “education” and TIC (this is China). I finally get back my passport and copies of the forms I’ve signed. Time to head to school.
I get to school in plenty of time, but the room for the club fair is being used for a meeting of all the 10th graders. Finally, at 4:20, the meeting finishes, and the room fills with students, moving desks and chairs, and hauling in posters and various materials. In 10 minutes the room gets set-up with a flurry of activity. My two “clubs” are next to each other, so I settle in between the two. The BHSFIC “Orchestra” club has a screen and projector with an explanation of the club. The “Band” club is really a guitar club.
The 10th graders start coming in at 4:30, and wandering around, checking out each club, deciding what they’re going to do. It’s almost like a revisit to Yashow Market. Lots of yelling, and students are being grabbed and coerced to join clubs (all in fun). When the fair ends, Jason (the “orchestra” student leader), tells me we have 20 or more students. I still don’t know what the instrumentation will be. I think I may be forced into some creative arranging. Jason says he’ll have it for me by Sunday. Sunday is a make-up teaching day (determined by the government) for the holiday on Thursday & Friday, this week.
The guitar club has eight or nine students. This should be an interesting group. They’ve told me they all have different musical styles. Can’t wait to see what this will turn into.
I leave around 5:45. The trains are really crowded going home. This is prime “rush hour”. There is a lot of shoving and cramming when you try to work into one of the cars. It’s quiet on the cars, but when the door opens, people flood out, and more flood back in. You can’t be too far from the door when it’s your stop, or you won’t be able to fight through the crowd. Everyone understands where you’re headed, and move if they can, but the crowd can only move so much. I’m enjoying the jostling. I’m one of the biggest, so I’m more of a “jostler” than a “jostlee”.