Around the World in 330 Days: Brian's Fulbright Journey in China and Elsewhere: Days 97-101: Changchun

On Sunday morning, we set out to Changchun. It took us longer to get to the airport than I thought it would. We had some difficulties. First it took a while to get to the Pudong Airport (it's further away than the Hongqiao airport, we discovered), and then one woman sent us to the wrong line when she didn't understand my prounciation of "Changchun." Sigh. Once we got to the right line, though, things got better, and we got our tickets (including a window seat for me) quickly. Sadly, though, the window seat was not a good one; I had a broken armrest, so I couldn't lift it up and my space was more limited. In spite of this, I managed to sleep most of the way there. We were met by a faculty member of Jilin who drove us to the hotel in a (rather small) car. We weren't expecting much with the hotel, but WOW. WE LOVED IT. It's called the Abritz Hotel, and it's probably the best hotel we've stayed at here in China. Heated bathroom floors, fancy lobby, and a soft bed! Kerry and I were thrilled. We received an e-mail from a young man who called himself Golden. He was the graduate student asked to show us around; he invited us to have dinner with him, but by this point we were pretty set on checking out the downstairs buffet at the A Cafe. We were glad we did because it was GREAT: salads, many meat choices, including pork, duck, and steak, and Haagen Dasz ice cream. There was some confusion with the skewers of meat I ordered, but it all worked out because I ended up getting more than I asked for. After dinner, Kerry and I walked around with Golden a bit. The walk was short due to the EXTREME cold--it was less than 5 degrees Fahrenheit. We walked to the university and saw the sign. Then we ended up at a coffee shop where Golden bought us some hot chocolate, and we conversed a bit on where he should get his doctoral degree. Students are so serious here! It never fails to impress me. Soon after, we went home, because my first lecture was Monday morning.

My Monday lecture was in a small lab with only about 20 people in attendance. I was sort of disappointed by this because I thought the topic ("Donald Trump and the State of Contemporary African American Literature") was engaging and would draw a crowd. For lunch, we went to a place called Amin Pot, where we ate pork (in little tacos like with Beijing duck), green tea cakes, fried sea urchin, and cabbage and shrimp soup. Very good stuff! After we rested up a bit, Golden and his friend Alex took us to the Palace and Museum of the Puppet Emperor (Wei Huang Gong). We went from building to building looking at different rooms in which Puyi carried out his reign. The museum and the air raid shelter (underground) were the most interesting aspects to me. After walking around in the frigid 1 degree cold for about 20 minutes, we got a cab and went to a steamed bun restaurant. At the restaurant, Kerry happened to reveal to Alex the truth about our relationship (ahem, Kerry's more than just a colleague!). "That's cool." Alex replied. "We're part of that group too," Golden said. This did not come as a shock to me because Golden is very touchy-feely, unlike a lot of Chinese men we've met. During the conversation, though, Golden would not use the word "gay," and instead described Alex as "a bit funny." This was bizarre to me. We even invited both of them to Shanghai, but Alex informed me that they couldn't possibly do that. I think they are worried about getting in trouble for being gay. Wow.

Tuesday I had a much bigger crowd for my lecture on "The Sentimental Tradition in American Literature to 1900"--about 120 people, lots of undergrads! My voice was somewhat hoarse, though, so I didn't move around much and mostly spoke into a microphone. People asked good questions, but I was wiped afterwards. Two faculty took me and Kerry to the Jilin cafeteria. It was interesting. You pay first, and then the faculty sit apart from the students, in these plush purple chairs, and they can pick out as much food as they want, in these little bowls. I really liked the fish best, even though it was bony. One of the faculty and I exchanged kitty pictures. She was shocked to discover that Bette has no tail. After the lunch, though, Kerry and I were pretty exhausted, and it was really too cold to do anything (-1 degree Fahrenheit), so we spent the rest of the day in the hotel, napping and then having dinner at A Cafe again.

Wednesday was my final lecture, and my voice almost gave out. There were about 50 people in attendance to hear me speak about online learning--the same lecture I gave at Soochow. This time the questions seemed a bit more random: one person asked me to talk about Donald Trump. We then received a tour of the campus (by car) from one faculty member, who even took us to a beautiful monument that had the school motto on it. Then we were taken to dinner at a North Korean restaurant. This was an enjoyable time because I got to spend some time with Yingna and two other faculty; we had a fascinating conversation about Chinese students. I keep learning that it IS considered cool to be a good student in China, which is so different from the USA. And the grades are made so public, even for high school students. "Their rankings are posted on WeChat," one faculty told us. In the US, that's a FERPA violation. This same woman told me that her daughter gets up at 5:30 for school and comes home at 6 pm: but she is allowed to have fun on the weekend (Friday and Saturday). North Korean waitresses provided entertainment: singing, piano playing, accordion, etc. I took quite a few videos. At one point, two women even came to our room and one sang in both North Korean and Chinese. I noticed a quartet also perform a song about Chairman Mao. I asked why they did this: "They are North Korean!," I insisted. "But their guests are Chinese," one faculty retorted. Point taken.

Thursday we left pretty early: slightly better seats on the plane, although this time my chair didn't provide good back support, and there was a screaming toddler two rows ahead of me. I did get some reading done and some sleeping in. The crazy thing was that, after landing, we taxied down the runway for about THIRTY MINUTES. What the actual hell? I think that's the longest taxiing (is that a word?) I've ever experienced. It was Kerry's birthday, but because we're doing the brunch on Sunday, we didn't do much. He bought a vibrating massage pillow for his neck at the airport, but that was about the extent of the celebration. I read more of Maus I in the evening after we got back, and unpacked. We are home for the weekend and it feels good after all the running around. But there's more coming up next week........!

Pictures from Changchun: