My thoughts and blog posts seem a bit disorganized, so I’m going to try to topicize my posts…

Laundry: Almost all university students wash their clothes by hand, then air dry them on their balconies (balcony, not in the luxuroius sense). The dorms don’t have hot water, so I assume clothes must be washed all with cold. Hot water is availibe for showering in a large shower building, with perhaps 300 showers spread over several floors, or from a hot water dispenser room, where one call fill a large thermos-type canister. I did my laundry in our hotel bathroom sink with Tide bar soap, and it’s slowly air drying in our highly air conditioned room. Oh yeah, showers only happen every couple days since there’s no hot water in the dorms.

Food: cafeteria: I ate in the cafeteria without a student friend to show me the ropes. The largest dining room is 3 stories tall (see photo below) with food court-like counters on each floor. A broken elevator or staircase connects the 3 floors. To buy food, you can put money on a dining commons debit card, and a machine at each food court counter debits your when you grab your dish. They have most common Chinese dishes–noodle, tofu, rice, breads, veggies and meats. There are no drinks…most students bring a nalgene type bottle of water or tea. If you’re a baller, you can buy a drink or fruit for a couple outside of the cafeteria. I still can’t find the napkin or paper towel dispenser, and none of the students had napkins. Ironically, on one side of the dining hall, there are about 20 sinks with 1 container of soap so that you can wash your hands. Again, no paper towel…it hasn’t been introduced to China yet. It’s about 4 yuan per meal (50 cents). The food is ok…about the same quality as U.S. collge dining commons food–you’d get tired of it after a month. When you’re done, you can just leave your dishes on the table (and whatever mess you may have made…It’s ok to put bones, unwanted food or gum directly on the table) and a bus woman comes by eventually and cleans off the table. It’s an ok solution to getting fed, but maybe only a couple times a week.

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