@nformer

Dalian
chronicles

At left, Barry Williamson

On November 3, Barry Williamson sent this message from Dalian, China where he
is working for one year as campus supervisor at the Capilano Canadian Institute of
Higher Education. Dalian is located east of Beijing on a peninsula between the
Bohia and Yellow Seas. Barry has agreed to provide regular updates from overseas
so that we all might learn a little about life in a country very different from ours.

t has been extremely cold this week

and very windy. There is no heat at
work or in my apartment. The central
government in Beijing decides when to
turn on the heat for the whole country
and that won’t be for at least one or two
more weeks. In the meantime, we
huddle around space heaters at work. At
home I have a toaster oven which I turn
on and leave the door open. It heats my
little place just fine.

This week is cabbage week here.
Farmers descended on our neighbourhood
and everyone buys cabbage for the winter.
They are piled everywhere, under the stairs
in the apartment, against the side of
buildings, even at work.

Today was moving day at work. We
have new offices in the grand new library
building. No warning was given about the
move. I arrived at work and was quietly
working away when suddenly a multitude
of workers arrived and started hauling
everything away. It means that some
higher authority decided that we must
vacate and so it happened. No boxes, no
packing. Everything was just picked up
and moved as is. Within an hour we were
moved. The instructors returned from their
classes at 10 a.m. to find empty rooms and

no one told them where we had gone. We
moved in and started setting things up.

The offices are really very spacious and
elegant, even compared to Canadian
standards. Here every office must have a
large leather sofa and chair in it or it is
not considered to have very important
occupants. So I must contend with one-
third of my office space being taken up
by this furniture because, after all, I am
the campus supervisor — so Mr. Tian
reminds me. (Mr. Sen Tian is the College’s
liaison from the Dalian Nationalities
University.) I was just feeling comfortable
when the telephone people arrived.
Apparently no provisions had been made
for telephone lines to our offices, so they
had to move everything, cut holes in the
walls and run wires everywhere. Every
day seems to go like this. There is always
acrisis of some sort to deal with and with
no warning. I am learning to just go with
the flow.

I am trying to cook for myself but it is
hard to when I can eat out so cheap. Last
night, I went to a new buffet restaurant
where I could have three courses plus rice
and beer for the equivalent of $2. Lunch
on campus is even cheaper — about $1.

Bye for now.

@ e= Capilano
@€emx College

Vol. XX1 No. 9
November 19/99