Culture everywhere you turn

So yesterday was the epitamy of cultural experiences here. Let me take you through my day...

I went to class like normal. My Reading teacher asked for the homework to which I responded to her with a dropped jaw and eyes wide! What homework? Me and two Korean girls had no idea what she was talking about. Apparently she had written it up on the board and only the Japanese classmates could read it enough to know it was homework she was assigning. I politely asked her to tell me next time she assigned homework.

During break one of the teachers informed me that myself and the rest of the new foreign students would be going to Old City at 2:30 that day to apply for a residence permit. Here, it's very normal that you are told what you're going to do or what you need to do at the very last moment possible. And because they have dropped everything to do it at that moment you are expected to as well, no matter what you're doing. So...at 2:30 that afternoon I was going to Old City.

After class I went to lunch where I successfully received what I thought I had ordered and it was delicious! I went on to the chaoshi (supermarket) to get some ingredients to make a cake for the pizza place. Everything went fine. I go home to make the cake and I use the oil I bought. Apparently I bought peanut oil because the cake tastes like peanuts instead of a spice cake. One downside to not being able to read yet.

At 2:30 I met everyone to head to Old City. There were like 20 of us. It was actually a great ride, getting to talk to new people. They provided us with water and a bus with cushy seats. We get to the police station and it's chaos! Typical here. This culture doesn't do lines so you better pay attention or someone is going to swoop in and get in front of you. Basically each person is going up to the counter to fill out a form, get their picture taken and give them their passport to get a residence permit put inside. Two and half hours go by and myself, another American and a Korean guy still have not been seen. We ask about it and we go to the counter and the lady there says that we don't need to get a residence permit because we already have student visas. :) Yes, we just smiled because we knew that we had just wasted three hours of our day. Our teacher and the lady behind the counter talked and they said they needed to take out picture. I am pretty sure they only did that to make us feel like we did actually go there for some purpose. (It wasn't a complete waste-I spent three hours getting to know people that otherwise probably would not have on that day. I did actually enjoy it, I was just exhausted!)

I then go home to make something else because the cake I made earlier was peanuty. I made some cookies. But while I have the microwave defrosting the butter and the oven is preheating I switch a breaker. Only, it's not one in my room. All of those are fine but nothing in my apartment is working. I have to call Aiyi to come and flip the breaker in the hall. She sees my big commercial oven that the pizza shop gave me and she is mad! She is yelling in Chinese. Thank goodness I couldn't understand her. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss! NOTE: do not run the oven and the microwave at the same time.

So there you have it. My day here. Just typical cultural things. I tell the other foreigners here and they laugh because it's all happened to them at one time or another:) It really was an eventful and entertaining day! :)