Getting into that Car with the man from the airport was probably one of the stupidest things I've ever done. Lukily for both Kristel and myself, the man turned out to be exactly what he said, and instead of ending up in some slave trade, we found ourselves in a 3 star hotel. It didn't take long to check in and find our way to the room, bt when we did, it wasn't exactly like what we were expecting. The beds weren't made, there was half eaten food sitting on the counters, not to mention the dirty towels scattered across the floor. It was a complete and utter mess. We marched ourselves back down stairs and (very politely) demanded another room. Or at least we would have, had we not encountered a slight problem. You see, it didn't take long for us to realize that the lady at the front desk knew hardly any English. We probably used just about every word in the English dictionary that somehow relates to the word 'dirty' but it was no use. We eventually convinced her to follow us upstairs but when we showed her the room she was still confused. We pointed to the half-eaten noodles and empty cans of beer and she then told us how much we would have to pay for them.
Let me just say one thing right now...going to another country when you can't understand a word of said country's language can be extremely stressful for both yourself, and the natives. Well long story short, we eventually got her to understand the situation, worked everything out, and got ourselves into a new, cleanish room and were able to enjoy a nice, overdue sleep. Well, at least, I would say that if it were true, but in reality the hotel was so noisy that we hardly got any sleep at all. I'm not sure why the hotel felt the need to keep janitors working at all hours, and I'm not sure why the janitors felt the need to turn their walkie talkies up loud enough to wake us up every time something was said, but oh well. The next day we took the bus back to the airport, waited at a cafe for four more hours, and then finally boarded our plane, (not before having a few major issues with our tickets of course.) Kristel and I both slept through the flight and soon we were in Linyi.
David, the head of foreign affairs at the university came to meet us at the airport. David informed us (as we rode across town in a fancy little bus) that we would be staying in the old dorms which meant that we would have to take a bus to class everyday instead of just being able to walk. The news itself was kind of disappointing, but not nearly as disappointing as our actual rooms would be. When we arrived, a young Chinese girl came to greet us and right off the bat turned to Kristel and asked, "Would you like the quiet room, or the room with sunlight?" "Uh...the room with light I guess..." she replied, somewhat bemused by the question. And so it was decided, Kristel would get the room with light, and I would get the quiet one. This was perfectly fine with me of course, that is, until I actually saw my room. Let me put this kindly. I'd rather stay in that dirty hotel room than in the one i found myself in. Everything was absolutely nasty. The floor was dirty with bits of glass here and there, the bathroom was revolting, and the once white sheets on my bed had turned a horrible shade of yellow. And to top it all off, some of my walls were starting to mold, which I'm pretty sure was bad for my health. Kristel and I were horrified by what we saw. After David and the Chinese girl Liz left, we had a long talk about our living situation. We came to the decision that there were only two options before us: either we needed to give those rooms a complete overhaul, or we needed to change dorms, and fast.
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