A U vs. C U

University here in China is very different than school back in the states. Here, there are no dry erase boards, smart boards and computers are not prevalent in classrooms either, in fact they are pretty much non-existent. All the teachers write on the blackboard (actually its green) with chalk. Cheap chalk too because it ALWAYS breaks when they write with it. We have an inside joke about the chalk breaking all the time because it is made in China. There are boxes just sitting on the podiums in varying colors. Of course they all use white unless you write something wrong on the board and then you get corrected in red. All classrooms have very hard uncomfortable desks. In culture class, we have these annoying desks that make no sense. Your chair is connected to the desk behind you. If you move your seat up the desk behind you moves up with it. Desk chasing is a common occurrence. Very annoying. Classrooms aren’t really big like some American ones, they are just very long. A lot of the times teachers need to use microphones and you can hear what they are teaching as you walk past. All classrooms have windows for extra light. They are always open, even now in the winter. One day in Chinese class, we had some old Chinese guy come and lean in the window and just watch our class for 15 minutes or so. It was very weird. Even our teacher was a little freaked out by it. Also, when friends come by during break time they just open the window to say hi and shoot the breeze. One major difference is bells. We have bells that ring every 45 minutes are so and they let everyone know when classes start and end and when our breaks are. Chinese Language is 4 hours long, that means 4 breaks, each one is a different amount of time as well. It almost feels like I’m in high school again. A major downside here is that bathrooms STINK!!! You can small urine down the hall. I guess it is no different than the ones you find out in public. Dirty, sometimes no door, incense is burned for the smell and they are all squatters. I will say I have not used a traditional Chinese toilet since being here. No plans to either. I refused to do it in Japan where the bathrooms are cleaner and I definitely won’t do it here where the bathrooms scare me.