ok

you asked for it, you've got it.

I know i said i was going to start blogging again and then promptly stopped. Part of that was because I got a bad cold, and then I was busy preparing for Mike to come, and then he was here. I'll try to be better.

I could write about how amazing it was having Mike here (really, nothing short of incredible) but I won't bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that it was hands down the best weekend of my life. Maybe I'll explain more later.

What I want to talk about right now is something that has been bothering me for a while and I can't get it out of my mind. It has to do with the heat/lack thereof situation in China. And why the windows are always fucking open.

In case you can't tell, i'm extremely bothered by the situation. Let me explain: in China, there is no central heating or central air conditioning. I might have explained this already before when it was hot and we were having issues regarding the ac but good lord is it a problem now. And I know that there are plenty of other countries in the world that don't have central heating either. I know that. And I know that it's not something I can change or something the Chinese teachers in my office can change. Not having central heating sucks, but it's something I'll have to deal with.

However, what I don't understand is why the Chinese teachers (and cab drivers, etc) feel it necessary to keep all the windows open, even when it's 40 degrees outside and we're all sitting in the office freezing, AND THE HEAT IS STILL ON. The administration told us that our heater/air conditioning units aren't made to stay on 24/7, because they will be trying too hard to produce the warm air to warm the room up to the temperature we have it set at. And yet....they want us to open the windows to get 'fresh air' all day long.

Apparently they think that if you keep the windows closed, you're keeping all the bad germs inside the building. If you open the windows (and therefore freeze), then it helps flush away the germs so you don't get sick.

I'm sorry. Maybe the Chinese think that this works for them, and maybe in this sense I'm being shocked, culturally. But all the western teachers (myself included) sit here in this office shivering while the cold wind blows in on us. And then they'll refuse to put the heater on, or turn it off, or turn the temperature way down. Our students open the windows in the classroom, claiming that they're too warm. I'm wearing long pants, boots, socks, a tshirt, and a wool sweater right now and I am freezing. Yesterday we couldn't figure out how to turn the heat on, so the a/c unit was blowing out cold air. We had to ask a Chinese teacher to turn on the heat for us, and she was shocked that we wanted it on. After two minutes, another teacher came in the office, turned the heat way down, and opened the window. It immediately got freezing cold and the Americans (again, myself included) started whining. One of the teachers was shocked that we weren't warm and I guiltily asked her if she could just close the window. They all looked at me like I was crazy.

Shannon sighed and said 'it's going to be a long winter.'