Haimen week 2

The peace and tranquility I experienced the first few days abruptly ended by the end of the week. The students were back from vacation, and classes started on the weekend to make up for the holiday they took during the week, and life for me would never be the same.
Apparently, breakfast is served at 6:30 every morning. I know because my room is on the ground floor, along the hallway where the mess hall is located. So while I'm still sleeping, the thunderous alarm of kids running down the stairs, laughing and screaming as they race pass my room never fails to get me fully awake. The alarms repeat during lunch and dinner as well, but by then I'm already out of my room, so they don't bother me much. It turns out I don't have it the worst. A contract teacher from Canada stays in the room right next to the stairwell, and every morning, some kid would make sure to knock on her door before going to breakfast. Wise guy. The untimely alarms come on not only during the week, but on weekends, too.

So what's a sleep-deprived, because I have to stay up late, TEFL trainee to do? Thank goodness there's a U.B.C. Coffee nearby.

I mentioned briefly how U.B.C. Coffee shops are popular in big cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou. To find one here in Haimen City is total bliss. The restaurant is large and western, with sofa seats and marble tables. There's soothing music playing in the background, and the place is almost always quiet.

It's quiet because there aren't many customers. That's understandable, for it's not cheap to wine and dine here. I'm paying 25 yuan for a glass of iced mocha, about the same price you'd pay in the states. But, a typical lunch in this city costs only 5 yuan, a fifth of the price of this coffee. Lest not forget a typical worker here makes 30 yuan a day. If you put those in perspective, then heck, drinking coffee in here is a luxury.

Of course, I don't consider dining here a luxury, but more like money well spent. I'm away from the school and the noise, and I can concentrate on my writing. In fact, most of the recent posts on my blog were written here at U.B.C.

I'm sitting here typing on my Palm keyboard wirelessly connected to my Tungsten T3, as I've done each time I came here alone. Today, there are more people than usual, perhaps it's Sunday, but the place is big enough that no one cares what I'm doing.

Not so long ago, I wrote how Palm PDAs are becoming irrelevant, what with very portable notebooks and PIM integrated smartphones on the rise. Then suddenly, I'm away from home on an extended trip, and carrying a Palm makes perfect sense. I can use it anywhere. It's much lighter than my iBook, yet, I can still type at full speed on the wireless keyboard. A smartphone might be handy, but I won't be able to type on it, and the small screen won't make me want to type anyway.

When I get back to my dorm, I just need to sync the T3 to my iBook, then open this document on my iBook, edit and add some links, then post it onto my blog. If not for U.B.C., I doubt I will be making many postings.

Oh, my writing of life in Haimen City has somewhat gone off-track, hasn't it? Sorry, you know how it is once I start talking tech stuff. I have much to tell, but I'll save it for my next post. I've been sitting here for two hours; it's time to go.

Filed Mon - May 17, 2004, 08:12 AM in

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