I walked into what was an empty hallway on the 29th floor of JianWai SOHO Building A at 9:57. There were lines of tables filling the hallways, leading into the WellTrend office, and through to a large room where there were more tables inside. I found Margaret Bai and was told to sit at the table for UDelaware and UAlabama in the hallway. I sat. And sat. And no one came by.
I looked around at the other colleges and schools being represented. Pell District School Board, in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Glasgow International College. New Jersey City University. Almost all I had never heard of. A poster directly across the tiny hall from me was for a school in Canada called Algonquin College. Like every other University, Algonquin College's poster had a picture of what they deemed the most important depiction of their campus' beauty. A stairwell. A stairwell.
Getting up at one point, I wandered through the office, and found a wall of acceptance letters from some of the top schools around the world. UPenn, Oxford, etc. Every single one had something in common - the address for each student was the same: JianWai SOHO Building A, Beijing, China. That, combined with the fact that only certain schools who had a good relationship with this company were represented, and they weren't even respectable schools (at least not the US ones), and with my experience of meeting Paul at lunch, an Englishman who was made to represent the Australian Universities (because apparently there's no difference between Brits and Aussies?) made me realize that this company was nothing more than a scam. And I was a cog in a wheel that was rolling a giant collection of cash for WellTrend.The only two respectable institutions on the list of US schools being represented were UPenn and Northeastern, and I cannot fathom why either would align themselves with this kind of company. Normally, I have a fairly low moral code, but I cannot be a part of a machine that pumps out students for Universities that are far below their academic level just for a quick buck - especially when it's a company that blatantly discriminates in their hiring based on race.
So I devised a silent protest.
I started talking with all the students that came by, mostly in English, sometimes in Chinese, about how they didn't have to use WellTrend's services. The company, I explained, does nothing that you cannot do yourself. I directed students to the University's website, and told them where they could download an application for themselves. I told them to find a program and a place that would make them happy, one they wanted to go to, and not to apply where a company says you should.
One promising case I met, a guy named Zouchunlong, is a perfect example of the flawed nature of this system of application-machinery. Zouchunlong, or Ray, graduated at the top of his high school class. He put as his top choice of University to go to Qinghua University, one of the best schools in China. He needed a 665 on his National Entrance Exam to get into the school, and he missed one question more than he could and ended up with a 660. As a result, he wasn't accepted by Qinghua, nor was he accepted by any of his second, third, fourth, etc. choices, because no one likes to play second fiddle when they could pick students who had that school as their first choice.
So Ray ended up at a crappy (at least for his level) Agricultural University in China, where he proceeded to screw up his academic life royally. After his second year, though, he realized there was nothing he could do about his situation, and that he should make the most of it. So he started to work again in school and began to pull fantastic scores in all his classes.
The result; he graduated with a cumulative GPA of 2.8 over four years and now wants to go to Graduate school in the States. WellTrend told him he couldn't even get into the University of Alabama, and that he'd have to apply to worse schools.
I spoke with Ray at length, and at one point he said to me "I think these types of companies just want to make money..." To which I responded, "you are right." He wanted to know what kind of school's he should apply to. So I told him that I thought he should do what any American student does; look at all schools for what they are, not whether they'd accept you. I told him to apply to schools he wanted to go to, with programs that interested him. So I asked him; "What have you done outside traditional academics?"
Ray answered that he does community service fairly regularly. He also got really into Biology in school and has been working closely with a professor on various experiments. He has completed an experiment on his own, and is in the process of publishing another with his professor. And he likes to play the saxophone. I asked "Have you done anything cool with that?" He told me he was in a band that played on the floor of the Bird's Nest at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in 2008... and had a 3-minute saxophone solo in the closing ceremonies of the same Olympic games!
I was floored. This kid got screwed by the system, but picked up his life and pulled up his GPA, worked on his passion in Biology, and performed a solo internationally at one of the most watched events in the world!
I told Ray that he needed to apply to every University he liked, regardless of how good they were. I told him he needed to write an essay about how he overcame the shortcomings of the Chinese school systems, or something showing what he was passionate about; who he is, not what his grades say. I told him about my application to Wash U, and how my GPA would never have been high enough to get me in had they only been looking at grades. I told him he needed to send any schools he applies to a copy of the experiment he is about to publish. But above all, I told him to send all schools a tape of his solo at the closing ceremonies. "If that doesn't get you into a great school, it will certainly get you into a good school; and if you're not happy there, after one year you can transfer anywhere you like if you do well enough."
THAT'S how a college fair is run. None of this "How's Wisconsin University?" and "Oh, Wisconsin's good, but UDelaware is amazing!" BS that they were feeding people asking genuine questions. Granted, I made up a story to make a point with one student -- I told them that my friend Hayden got into Northeastern despite bad grades because he built a cabin in the woods and lived in it for a month -- but the point of a college fair like this, for students who don't understand the American school system, is to learn, not to be brainwashed.
I'm sure it goes without saying that I hated my job today. When it came to 2:30, and the fair was over, I walked with Margaret Bai so she could pay me. I told her "I don't think I can come to the next one. I don't see how I am being helpful and I don't understand my purpose here.." which was the politest way I could say "I just ripped you off of 500 yuan and about a dozen students' business!" She responded something face-saving, like "I am not sure we'll be doing more of these fairs before you leave, anyway," which was the same line she gave Alex when she rejected her for this job. I've never quit a job on the same day I signed up, but everyone gets one, right?
The cab ride home was interesting; my driver decided it would be cool to be the 4th lane in a 3-lane road...
I had siesta at the hostel. Met Chris (Tennessee) and Maya (Tel Aviv), and we started drinking when Alex and Kuldeep returned from 798, the artsy area of Beijing, and when Cole joined us from his nap. I broke open the Soju I got in Korea and mixed a bunch with a milkshake I had ordered.
We drank some beer and around 10 began to drink for real. Took shots from the Mongolian shotglass.
We walked to KTV for some Karaoke. The nearest KTV is underneath a bowling alley just down the street from us.
It was a fiasco. We had brought our own beer, which cost 3-yuan each, and the people at KTV had agreed to let us bring it into the room - we had to promise to order some beer of our own when we got inside.
We entered the room at 11:18pm. We started up one song, and sang it while Alex and I, the only Chinese speakers there, ordered twelve beers (buy 6, get 6 free). The twelve came with a free plate of fruit as well.
At 11:21, we were brought the bill for two hours. It was, unbeknownst to us until then, 240 yuan for the first hour, and 150 for the second hour (after midnight). Plus the 150 for the twelve Bud Ice that had come, for a grand total of 540 yuan, or 90 apiece for the 6 of us - which was far more expensive than we could have imagined (the last KTV with lishuan was 77 each for 13 people, 1000 yuan worth of alcohol and food, and 4 hours in a private room). Alex and I started arguing and said that we'd just leave and not pay. They said we had to pay because we'd been using their space, and had already had some of the fruit they'd prepared.
We argued they didn't tell us the price and just put us in a room. They said maybe we could just pay for an hour (240) and the beer and then leave, for 390 yuan. But, we said, we didn't even sing two songs (the screen was stuck halfway through "Open your eyes, look up to" on Bohemian Rhapsody), and that wasn't worth an hour!
But, they argued, we had been there almost an hour (it was 11:50 by now), to which we countered "because we've been arguing with you!"
We walked out of the room and to the lobby, where we were surrounded by KTV "agents" (they all had those little earpieces coming from their ears, and that plus the uniform made them seem a little more like KGB than KTV). The lobby was empty. I tried to explain that the room they said we should pay for because we'd been sitting in it was worthless because no one was waiting. We argued and argued and eventually settled on buying the 3 beers of the 12 that had been opened, and left, which was still a ripoff.
Cole and Chris went home, since Cole was tired and Chris insisted we had disrespected the people trying to rip us off by arguing with them. The rest of us (Maya, Alex, Kuldeep and I) took a cab to Propaganda instead.
My friends here have been trying to get me to Propaganda for the last three weeks, and I finally went tonight.
Propaganda is an all-in-one nightspot. There are four floors to the building. We entered for free, downing the last of the Soju as we got inside. We started downstairs, where the club and dancefloor was, and was packed, and we hopped on stage by the DJ and danced for maybe an hour and a half. The music wasn't even that terrible!
Back to the main floor, the bar area, and past that to the second floor, where there is pool and other games, as well as another bar, we made our way to the top floor, which was a cafe and hookah bar. We picked up a good hookah for 40 yuan, which was a great deal, and enjoyed that for a while. I even managed to argue with the waiter that we needed a small needle to fix the hookah at one point -- my Chinese is slowly improving... they don't teach stuff like this in school.
After hookah we spent a little more time downstairs in the club, but after 2am things die down down there (down down down down down down doooooooowwwwwwn there).
We all got back at 4, agreeing to meet just past noon tomorrow, for several things we need (well, that Kuldeep needs) to do.
Sleep about 4:40.
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