Eric's Beijing Diary

I'm sitting here in my hotel in Langfang. I come here two days a week to teach a technical English class. I am going to be doing the database stuff on Monday and Wednesday in Beijing. But the Software College, which is less than two years old, is growing very rapidly, and there is not enough room for the incoming freshmen. They are in the process of building more space, but it won't be ready until next semester. It's all part of the massive change that is taking place in the university structure in China. Beihang Univesity (Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics) is not new. It has been around since 1952. But two years ago, the Beijing government commissioned 35 universities in China to set up software colleges. The freshmen are allocated by the government from the pool of entering freshmen from all over China. The software college gets about 200 of them each year. The graduates are recruited independently, which means there is no official limit on how many graduates the Software College can take in. Anyway, I was asked to teach Technical English on the overflow campus. I am not enthusiastic about being away from Beijing, because it takes me away from the lab, and I need lots and lots of time for preparation for the Oracle course. But they were good enough to give me a motel room so that I don't have to spend too much time traveling. And fortunately, the hotel offers a breakfast, so I can work on my laptop in my room; I don't have to rush back to the campus. Not much I can say about breakfast. People in China always ask me if I like Chinese food. I always tell them that I like American breakfasts, but for lunch or dinner I tend to like Japanese or Chinese food. Not that I don't like American suppers. I have eaten plenty of American buffet dinners, especially when I was in the trucking industry. And Uncle Johnny wouldn't know how to make Chinese food, but his Norwegian American dinners were absolutely incredible. But getting back to the point--I really like Chinese dinners, if I am with someone who knows how to order. But the breakfast thing is very new to me. I am not used to eating cold wet vegetables for breakfast. It looked really healthy, though, and as a matter of principle I never turn down healthy food. I think it's immoral to turn down healthy food. The first time I came here, they gave me a jar of strawberry jam with my meal. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with it, since they didn't give me a knife to spread it with, or a piece of bread to put it on. But not to let a good thing go to waste, I dug a little out with my chopsticks and put it on my mantou. The past couple weeks they have actually been giving me a few slices of bread. First bread I've had since I came to China. If anyone knows what I'm supposed to do with the raw egg, let me know. I think it would have been easier if they just left it in the shell--then I could suck it out. Today I decided to pour it in the bowl of warm milk they usually give me. I mixed it up. Eggnog. Or french toast batter. Anyway, it's not too bad. Bu cuo.