The day starts off with concerns about hot water.\u00a0 Judy\u2019s shower is lukewarm.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what\u2019s going on.\u00a0 There\u2019s pressure, but Judy thinks it\u2019s not hot enough.\u00a0 I\u2019m 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).\u00a0 I\u2019ll probably end up paying some more on our hot water card, and hoping that solves it.<\/p>\n
I work a little on school planning then head down to UHN management.\u00a0 I pay 500y on what I think is the hot water card.\u00a0 When I get back to the apartment, I try to load the card into the meter.\u00a0 Nothing is loading?\u00a0 The meter doesn\u2019t move, so I\u2019m going to have to try something else?\u00a0 Oh well.<\/p>\n
I dress for school and start over to the train station.\u00a0 I\u2019m headed to the \u201cClub Fair\u201d.\u00a0 The bank ATM where I think I got the counterfeit money is located in the mall.\u00a0 I go into the bank and begin trying to explain the counterfeit money issue.\u00a0 There is lots of confusion and concern.\u00a0 I end up in a small cubicle working with a bank teller through glass.\u00a0 They\u2019ve found an intern that speaks English well enough that I know I\u2019m not going to get any of the counterfeit money replaced.\u00a0 I give them my passport, answer many questions about which ATM, when, etc.\u00a0 There are many forms to be completed and signed.\u00a0 I can tell they reference the counterfeit bills.\u00a0 I have to call someone from BHSFIC, who talks to the bank officials, and then explains to me what I already knew.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t going to get any money back.\u00a0 The bank couldn\u2019t figure out how the money got into their ATM machine.\u00a0 They don\u2019t seem to believe that it could have come from them.<\/p>\n
I suppose it\u2019s possible the sales people at Yashow Market swapped out good bills for bad ones, and then came running after us, waving the bad bills.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t explain how I got so many, and I didn\u2019t give them eight of them.\u00a0 I had noticed when I was checking my money before we left the apartment early Saturday, that I had a group of \u201cnewish\u201d bills.\u00a0 These are the ones that turned out to be bad.\u00a0 They definitely came from the ATM, as far as I\u2019m concerned, but I think I\u2019m going to have to write this off to \u201ceducation\u201d and TIC (this is China).\u00a0 I finally get back my passport and copies of the forms I\u2019ve signed.\u00a0 Time to head to school.<\/p>\n
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<\/sup> graders.\u00a0 Finally, at 4:20, the meeting finishes, and the room fills with students, moving desks and chairs, and hauling in posters and various materials.\u00a0 In 10 minutes the room gets set-up with a flurry of activity.\u00a0 My two \u201cclubs\u201d are next to each other, so I settle in between the two.\u00a0 The BHSFIC \u201cOrchestra\u201d club has a screen and projector with an explanation of the club.\u00a0 The \u201cBand\u201d club is really a guitar club.<\/p>\n The 10th<\/sup> graders start coming in at 4:30, and wandering around, checking out each club, deciding what they\u2019re going to do.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like a revisit to Yashow Market.\u00a0 Lots of yelling, and students are being grabbed and coerced to join clubs (all in fun).\u00a0 When the fair ends, Jason (the \u201corchestra\u201d student leader), tells me we have 20 or more students.\u00a0\u00a0 I still don\u2019t know what the instrumentation will be.\u00a0 I think I may be forced into some creative arranging.\u00a0 Jason says he\u2019ll have it for me by Sunday.\u00a0 Sunday is a make-up teaching day (determined by the government) for the holiday on Thursday & Friday, this week.<\/p>\n The guitar club has eight or nine students.\u00a0 This should be an interesting group.\u00a0 They\u2019ve told me they all have different musical styles.\u00a0 Can\u2019t wait to see what this will turn into.<\/p>\n I leave around 5:45.\u00a0 The trains are really crowded going home.\u00a0 This is prime \u201crush hour\u201d.\u00a0 There is a lot of shoving and cramming when you try to work into one of the cars.\u00a0 It\u2019s quiet on the cars, but when the door opens, people flood out, and more flood back in.\u00a0 You can\u2019t be too far from the door when it\u2019s your stop, or you won\u2019t be able to fight through the crowd.\u00a0 Everyone understands where you\u2019re headed, and move if they can, but the crowd can only move so much.\u00a0 I\u2019m enjoying the jostling.\u00a0 I\u2019m one of the biggest, so I\u2019m more of a \u201cjostler\u201d than a \u201cjostlee\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The day starts off with concerns about hot water.\u00a0 Judy\u2019s shower is lukewarm.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what\u2019s going on.\u00a0 There\u2019s pressure, but Judy thinks it\u2019s not hot enough.\u00a0 I\u2019m thinking the hot water reservoir is depleted due to the time … Continue reading