The past day has been a frenzy of ski-trip preparation. My roommate has been wonderful in all of this - making phone calls, tracking down ticket prices, figuring out train schedules... she's psyched to go skiing as well, though describes her ski technique as "human bowling". We woke up at 6:30 this morning to head down to the train station to buy tickets to Yabuli - we got seats for 22 people on the way there, but the way back remains to be seen - we may be standing for three hours, which I haven't dared to tell anyone yet. Oh well - it will be a true Chinese experience (though not one of the better ones).
I'm psyched that we got 22 people to sign up to go, though - about equal numbers of Americans and Chinese roommates. The CET office is reimbursing us 200 kuai each for the adventure, which makes a huge difference to the Chinese roommates - the whole experience of organizing the ski trip reminded me once again how huge the difference is between dollars and renminbi - the train tickets cost 30 kuai each way, or just under $4.00, which seems like nothing to an American, but then, I paid 1.8 kuai for my lunch today (about 20 cents). When you relativize the costs, you quickly realize that one afternoon of skiing (260 kuai) costs the equivalent of an entire month's worth of meals for a Chinese student (or more). Some students are more well-off than others, but no one here is throwing money around. It's a good wake-up call, and something to think about when I'm standing on the train for three hours.
This will probably be the last chance I get to write anything before Sunday when we get back - off now to take a tour of the library and get my very own library card (v. excited about that, although apparently the English books are limited to nothing but Dickens and Shakespeare). wish me luck with the skiing!
