Things I Have Missed, Things I Will Miss

It is just over two weeks until my return so I have been thinking a lot about the things I am looking forward to when I get back as well as the things I will miss from China.

At the top of the list, I am looking forward to seeing friends and family again. As much as I love travel and adventure, I am also a home-body. The two must be kept in balance. My times away make me appreciate my home-life and when my daily routine becomes boring or stressful, I know it is time to get away for a while.

There are a few people here who have become "friends" but I'm putting that in quotation marks because it is really hard to make a genuine connection through the language/cultural barrier. People in China tell me, "we are good friends," but really, our friendships seem very superficial to me. I am sure that I won't hear from many of them ever again. Still, they have been friendly and kind and a part of my experience here so I will remember them and wonder how they are like one does about childhood friends.

I have missed the beauty and simplicity of the American countryside. I am not really a city-girl and people use their car horns here like I've never heard before. Sometimes I am able to forget the constant noise but it will not be something I miss.

I am also looking forward to regaining my independence. It sounds a bit strange since I am obviously on my own here but I can't problem-solve in China the way I can in America. The resources are different or non-existant. When I need something in America, I know where to get it, or at least I have a general idea or there are ways to find out. For example, when I was looking for hay for Tuza, first I needed a translation for the word and everyone kept saying "grass" and I was trying to explain that it is a particular type of grass. I would ask them what their horses eat and they would say, "grass". I know hay exists here because I have seen it when I went out to the villages. I couldn't get it on my own, however, because 1. I don't have a way to get out to the countryside on my own, 2. I can't speak to the farmers to ask them for some. I would ask people I know to help me out and they would always say they could get some for me but they never did.

I guess the biggest question is, will I miss teaching here? In some ways it is the easiest job ever. I can talk about anything I want, the students love me, and there is no tests or standards to meet. However, these blessings have a dark side.

Yes, I can talk about anything but if I talk about something new to the students, I need to explain things and that gets really tricky. There are no teaching tools here except a blackboard and some chalk. No maps (except a few world maps that students buy, and these have China in the center so all of Europe is squished on the left and all of America is squished on the right), no pictures, no printer, a copier that is only available at certain times a day, etc. Recently, I started downloading pictures from the Internet, saving them to a flash drive, taking them to a computer shop to print, then showing them to help explain parts of my lesson.

Yes, many (but not all) of the students are fans of the foreign teachers. I don't know if I will ever get applause when I walk into a classroom again. However, just because they like me does not necessarily translate that they pay attention to me in class. For some of them, they don't really care what I have to say, they just like me because I'm a foreigner. They will greet me in the hall or when I enter class like I'm their best friend but they won't listen to a word I say during the lesson.

Yes, one of the worst parts of teaching in America was testing and grading and I have escaped that here but when there is no accountability for what they have learned, there is no incentive for them to pay attention in class other than their own interest, and let's be honest, they are teenagers so how interested in school can they be? Classroom management is nearly impossible when there are 60+ students in the room.

To be completely honest, I think I will miss China a lot more when it is a memory and not my reality. I know that sounds really bad. We all have memories of some of the seemingly horrible times in our life that we are able to look back on and appreciate much more when it is done. For example, my parents used to drag five whining kids across lava fields in Hawaii, up mountains to see glaciers in New Zealand, across the desert of Australia to watering holes, etc. As torturous as it seemed at the time, I appreciate it now.

Thanksgiving in China

I taught a lesson on Thanksgiving to my students last week, giving them both the holiday traditions (trying to explain stuffing was really challenging!) as well as the history. In each of the classes I asked the students if they knew what holiday was going on. Most classes had to think for a while and usually they gave me the Chinese name first. In one class, when I pressed for the English name, a student replied, "thanks-give-me". Close enough. As I talked about the idea behind Thanksgiving, I really began to think about the deeper meaning of it. I wanted to share how being in a foreign country has given me perspective on Thanksgiving.

On the surface, the warm-fuzzy part of Thanksgiving is the time to spend with friends and family. Seemingly shallower, we eat, watch parades and football, go shopping, and just enjoy a few days off work. All of these “less noble” parts of Thanksgiving, however, are what I see as being distinctly American. I have a greater sympathy for those who move to America and hold on to their holidays because I see now how much a part of one’s life they become. Being surrounded by people who not only don’t celebrate one of the most important holidays to my culture, but don’t even know about it really brought home the meaning of cultural identity.

Cooking has always been challenging here but, I’ve been planning Thanksgiving dinner for some time so I was able to collect ingredients for a good-enough attempt at a Thanksgiving feast. The menu included turkey and stuffing casserole and instant mashed potatoes (thanks to mom and dad), deviled eggs, garlic bread, salad, and oatmeal raisin cookies. Just note that all of the food required ingredients purchased outside of China—even the salad, for which I made a home-made dressing since they don’t have salad dressing here.

Thanksgiving is a day to remember our blessings so at the risk of sounding trite, I want to share the things I was grateful for. I really like the idea of having a holiday to feel gratitude for the things we usually take for granted and if there is one thing I’ve learned here, it is to appreciate things that I never thought twice about before. Things like forks. I only have one fork and while my dexterity with chopsticks has improved greatly, I still think the fork is a superior tool. You can’t eat cake with chopsticks. Reliable electricity and hot water are high up on the list as well.

Probably the thing I have been most grateful for since I’ve been here is the internet and the modern technology that uses it. I’ve been able to keep in touch with friends and family in ways that were not possible during the time I lived in Australia. The contact has really been food for my soul, making it possible for me to be here in relative contentment. I don’t want to imagine how much harder it would have been without it.

And now for the really cheesy part: I know that I whine and gripe a bit in my posts about what life is like here but really, I am thankful for this experience. The value of self-discovery and cultural education gained by living in another country cannot be measured. If this had been all fun and giggles, I don’t think I would have learned the lesson’s I have. We are stronger after facing the challenging times of life for the lessons they have to teach us are more powerful. Good times are sweeter when you have experienced bitterness; the sun seems brighter after clouds. When things seem like they’ve all gone to heck in a hand basket, stop and find something to be thankful for. Ok, I’m done now!

Routines

It has been getting more difficult to come up with topics to write about. Things have been fairly routine with the average, ordinary, every day craziness. Like this:

Last Monday, I was up fairly early because I teach the first class so it was around 6 a.m. when I was on my computer, checking my email and all that when the power went out. I was only annoyed, not surprised, because this happens every now and then. Its not that there is a problem--there is no storm or problem with the state grid--it is just something they do once in a while. Usually it will be back on in a couple of hours or once, during the summer, they turned off the power at around 9 in the morning and it came back on around 3 in the afternoon. When I got to school, however, I learned that the power would be off until 10:00 that night (it was actually 10:30 when it came back on) throughout the entire city. So, I couldn't take a shower and I couldn't entertain myself with my computer but it really didn't get too annoying until the sun set...which was at around 5:00. The people here take it all in stride, which makes laugh when I think about how Americans would react if someone said, "Oh, by the way, the city will be without power today, guys."

I did buy my plane ticket home last week. It has been very difficult to make plans because, of course, "the school didn't make a decision" about when the term would end or when the students would have winter classes, which I thought I would be teaching. Ricky informed me, however, that because Spring Festival, which is the Chinese New Year, would be earlier than usual, classes would end at the end of December and the winter classes wouldn't start until around mid February. To be on the safe side, I assumed that classes would be in session the last week of December that runs into the first week of January so I booked my flight home the following weekend. The flight is direct and leaves Beijing at 7:00 pm on Friday the 9th and actually arrives at Dulles at 7:20 pm on the 9th because of the time difference AND it will be less travel time as a direct flight because the plane flies north over the artic rather than south toward LA, which I did when I flew out.

I had a student break down in tears when I told her class I was leaving. They work the students very hard here. Their day starts around 7 and they will study late into the night. They took a test recently and I could see the anxiety, and afterward the disappointment. In the conversations I've had with some of my students that is all that is drilled into them: study, study, study. When a student told me she wanted to visit Japan and be a writer after school, I was encouraging her goals and she said to me that if she told her other teachers they would tell her to stop dreaming and study. Another student wrote me a letter in which she was saying what a failure she was because she couldn't stick to her goal to stay up until midnight to study every night.

It has been very cold out and today has been the coldest yet. There was snow and ice outside this morning, which I was pleased to see but it did make walking to school a little perilous. It is hard to get an accurate weather forecast or temperature because Anshan is the closest place that I can find online with weather reports but I'm pretty sure we are in the low teens at night and low to mid twenties during the day. Of course, it feels much, much colder with the wind factor...and it is very windy here very often. One weather report I saw said it felt like four degrees with the wind chill. After walking to school this morning I would have to say "at most!" At least the heat is on in my apartment now.

Miscellaneous Part 4 (Average, Ordinary, Everyday Craziness)

China is a country in the throes of development. Here in Taian, things are just getting going and it gives me many occasions to laugh. Trevor and I went to a place near the apartment complex to get something to eat. There was nothing extraordinary about this place—not too fancy, not the biggest dump here—just your average restaurant. Like many of the restaurants here, dining is done in a private room but unlike in some places where we go with a big group that give us our own room, this place has booths with a curtain. As we are talking, I look around the booth and notice how dirty the walls are. Fifty or so years of grubby hands and God knows what else smeared all over it. The second thing I notice is how ugly the lamp on the wall is. The third thing I notice is that the curtain for the booth is similar to the car seat-covers I have seen: pink, lacy, embroidered with flowers. It is such a mish-mash, juxtaposed collection that is so China!

I mentioned in a post shortly after I arrived that I had a solar heater for hot water. When I returned from Greece, I found that the pipes (or something) were broken because I would send the water up to the heater but it wouldn’t hold it; the water leaked down the walls and onto the floor in my bathroom. I called my go-to guy for issues with my apartment and he came and took a look. I got no assessment of what was wrong or when it would be fixed so after a couple weeks went by I inquired again. This time, he brought the owner of the apartment and they both looked around; again, no assessment, no information about fixing it. Yesterday, I found out that the owner has decided that the problem (whatever it might be) would be too expensive to fix so I must go without hot running water (though I still have the electric heater for my shower). I had never learned this before but apparently, hot water doesn’t exist here—its not considered a necessity—so unless a person has a solar heater or an electric heater, boiling water is the only option.

I’m also waiting for the heat to be turned on in my apartment. It has been getting colder here, often dipping below freezing at night but the heat in buildings is not controlled by thermostats in rooms. Heat is all state controlled. My heat was supposed to come on the day before yesterday but it has yet to be turned up. So for now, whenever I’m home, I’m usually wearing my sweats under my robe, some thick socks and my slippers, and I sit at my computer curled under a blanket. This way, the only part of me that is cold is the hand on the mouse.

The heat is not on at the school, either. This is not really a problem in the classrooms because they place them all on the side of the building that gets sun in the afternoon and there are 60 or more bodies to keep the room warm. My office, on the other hand, is not populated nor on the sunny side of the building so it was freezing. It didn’t really bother me too much because I didn’t spend too much time there and I figured I would just have to wait till they turned the heat on because the radiator was right next to my desk but they had other ideas. On Thursday, they had me move all my stuff, and they moved all the furniture to the fifth floor so the office would be on the other side of the building. I have to say, I’m not really thrilled about having an office on the fifth floor!

Over the summer, my assistant got married. I, unfortunately, missed the ceremony because the people I was riding with to get there got lost but like in America, it is popular to have a film of the wedding made and I borrowed the DVD so I could see it. It was very shocking, but perhaps unsurprisingly so. The first part was Ricky and Janet at the park before their wedding day, running through the field, him pushing her on the swing, that sort of stuff. The next section showed pictures taken at a studio where they would dress up in different outfits and be put in different scenes like dressed as private-school children at a subway station or dressed like they were going to Hawaii on a boat. The day of the wedding had some interesting rituals. They greeted each other’s families like we have a receiving line but they gave and lit a cigarette for each person. Perhaps the most shocking thing, however, was during the ceremony, Ricky’s cell phone rang (he had it in his pocket) and he answered it!! It is true that there is no cell phone etiquette here but I couldn’t believe he paused in his own wedding to answer the phone! (Actually, I think it was us telling him we were lost.)

There are three parts to the following video. The first is a refreshing hint of culture. Every night during the summer, some musicians would play at the park entrance and women would come with fans (some in traditional outfits) and do a dance-like walk. I think it was mostly for exercise. Trevor called it the senior citizens dance club. The second part of the film is a shot of the restaurant I described above. I had to go back with my camera so you can see what I’m talking about! The third part took place earlier this week. Whenever someone of importance dies, there is this really depressing music playing. It will play all day. Then, at night, we get an even more depressing song. I only caught a little bit of it but you’ll understand. Lucky us, someone of importance dies once every two or three weeks.

Greece

I had two reasons for going to Greece. The first is that, for those of you who don’t know, I study historical European fighting and am a member of the ARMA (Association of Renaissance Martial Arts). There is an ARMA study group in Athens who hosted a training event. (This means that part of my luggage was my four-foot practice longsword.) The second reason is because I really needed a vacation and, come on, it’s Greece!

My adventure to Greece began on Friday, September 27. I taught two classes at the middle school then went home to collect my bags before heading to the bus station. My bus was scheduled to leave at noon and it would take me seven and a half hours to reach Beijing. No problem, I had a book to read: Erica (God bless you!) sent me Twilight. The bus was destined for West Station, a hub for the trains and busses crossing China. My plan was to meet up with another fencer who lives in Beijing so we could do some sparring then I had a hotel reservation at a place near the airport.

While I was preparing Tuza’s ten-day food supply, which looked like it could feed a herd of elephants, I got a call from Fairy. I had asked her to call the train station to find out how I could get back to Taian once my returning flight landed in Beijing. She gave me some bad news: the train from Beijing to Anshan left at 11:00 pm and arrived at Anshan at 9:00 am. I was already missing three days of classes and if I took this option I would be missing a fourth. From what I could gather, the bus would be my best option but there was no way for us to get the ticket ahead of time. There was really nothing I could do but assess the situation when I got to Beijing—not really a comfortable option for a planner like me.

The bus ride was uneventful except for the part when we stopped at some station and everyone gave their ID card to a police officer for inspection. I wasn’t really sure of the purpose of this but it seemed like they were keeping tabs on who was traveling where—just another example of the freedoms US citizens take for granted. When they got to me, the best I could produce for them was my passport. They were trying to ask me questions but I didn’t understand them so, although they didn’t look all that comfortable with it, they moved on.

When I got to Beijing, the bus decided not to go to West Station, much to my annoyance, but just stopped on the side of a street, booted me and my bags off, and a man pointed down the street and then made a right hook with his finger. I guessed he was telling me the station was that way. I did find it but I wasn’t anticipating how big it was. It took me a much longer time to find the fencer than I had anticipated. When we finally did find each other, we discovered that the park we had intended to go to was closed so we ended up sparring in a grassy spot near an intersection. Luckily, some trees offered at least a little privacy or we might have attracted too much attention. After we finished we had dinner together (I’ll let you guess where we ate) and I asked him the best way to get to the hotel. He said there was a subway that ran from the city to the airport and then I could take a taxi. Sounded like a plan to me. He got me to the subway station and we said good-bye then I continued on to find the train. Except for a few employees, the station was abandoned and I shortly found out why: the trains had stopped running for the night (it was about 11:00 by this time). I found my way back out to the street and hailed a cab. I had the name of the hotel written in Chinese so I showed it to him. He just looked at me and said something in Chinese. I didn’t understand—it gets really annoying—but I guessed he didn’t know where to go. Luckily, I had also written down the number of the hotel so I called them and handed the phone to the driver. Eventually, he figured it out and got me there (it was past midnight). Exhausted and relieved, I go to check in only to discover that the hotel did not have my reservation. They offered me a room but at 140 RMB more than the room I had reserved. I talked them down 100 RMB before giving in.

It was a 10 hour flight from Beijing to Amsterdam, where I caught a 3 hour connecting flight to Athens. By the time I boarded the plane in Beijing I only had a quarter of my book left to read so finding a book store in Amsterdam was a priority. I was elated that I found one with two more books in the Twilight series in English. Some good luck at last!

I arrived in Athens at 1:00 am, which is a horrible time to be arriving in the first place but made worse because I had a ferry ticket to the island of Milos scheduled to leave at 1:00 pm that same day. It seemed like such a waste of money to get a hotel room for a few hours so my plan was to find a corner of the airport to rest before heading down to the docks. My second piece of luck changed that plan. One of the ARMA members from Athens, Stefanos, was meeting me at the airport to take my fencing equipment so I wouldn’t have to carry to the island with me. He felt so bad about leaving me there that he offered to take me around the city on his motorcycle. I actually wasn’t feeling that tired so it sounded like fun to me. We left my bags with a friend of his and did a night-tour of Athens. Since the hostel I had booked required me to book the room, not just the bed, I ended up paying for two beds and asked Stefanos if he would like to come to Milos with me. I was delighted that he was able to because it was so nice to have an English-speaker around (and he could translate for me to those who did NOT speak English) and I think you can get the best flavor for a place when you travel with a local. As a bonus, Stefanos brought his motorcycle to the island, which turned out to be very useful.

The island itself was everything I’d hoped it would be: quaint, quiet, beautiful, with a touch of history. Everything seemed so wonderful to me, I had to laugh at myself. Taian is constantly full of the sounds of construction, barking dogs, and honking horns. Even as I write this, that is exactly what I hear. On Milos, the only sound I could hear in the morning was a couple of birds singing. We went to a bakery and I ate a cookie that was so good I almost cried for missing baked goods. The untouched, wild countryside, though scrubby by comparison still seemed so lush when contrasted to the carefully planted farms that fill my temporary home. When we visited a serene bay, there was a heard of goats nearby. Each one was wearing a bell so when they moved it sounded like a tribal band. The old and ancient structures were so clean in their lines and colors, especially compared to the bright and flashy styles preferred by the Chinese. I had a wonderful time just BEING there. Unfortunately, I finished the second book and discovered to my horror that I possessed the fourth and was missing the third. Stefanos promised me that we would look in Athens and, by some miracle, we were successful in finding a bookstore that carried it in English. Another disaster avoided.

Of course, one cannot visit Greece without touring the Acropolis. Impressive seems too inadequate a word but that is what I remember feeling standing amongst the ancient pillars. There was something commanding about the buildings like they radiated wisdom from the things they had seen—ancient, old, and modern. I did find it odd, however, that they seemed to be agonizing over the preservation and/or restoration of the structures but I witnessed a stray dog taking a leak on them.

The ARMA Hellas group is about 20 members strong. The weekend of the training event, we were joined by three guys from ARMA Poland and two guys, who are also friends of mine, from the States. It was so good to see some familiar faces, I can’t even put it into words. The weekend passed in a blur of good food, good wine, and good company—my three favorite things! Our Greek hosts were so extremely accommodating and generous it was almost embarrassing.

The end of my trip also went more smoothly than I had expected. I had called Fairy before leaving Beijing and told her that I was not successful in procuring a ticket home but I told her I had an idea. I have a student whose mother lives in Beijing and I knew this student would jump at the chance to help me out so I asked Fairy to ask Ricky to ask this student to ask her mother if she could help me out when I got back to Beijing. I was a bit nervous about this going through so many people but Fairy sent me an email with this the mother’s phone number in it saying to call her when I arrived. I thought she went a bit overboard because not only did she meet me at the airport but she paid for the taxi to the bus station, bought my ticket, treated me to lunch, got me some snacks for the road, put me on the right bus then called her friend in Taian to pick me up since, once again, the bus would be stopping roadside rather than going into town. I tried refusing her generosity but the Chinese don’t take “no” very easily.

The funny thing is, when I got back to Taian and saw the plastic, lit-up palm trees that look like some warped imitation of Vegas style, I felt like I was home. I guess this place with all of its quirks has grown on me more than I realized.

Back to School

We are now several weeks into the fall term and there are some things that are the same (and have been that way for as long as people here remember, I’m sure) and there are some things that are different.

The students are still excited to see me, which is one of the nicest things about this job. I’ll still get applause if I dress particularly well or if I do something different with my hair. I am, however, beginning to struggle for things to teach them. There is a whole world of possibilities but they are tempered by lack of resources (if I could print pictures off the internet things would be soooo much easier to explain) and language limitations. I can teach them a lesson that requires them to learn new words but I have to be careful not to overload them with new words or they get overwhelmed (or bored).

I’ve been trying to get the students to ask me more questions both so they get practice speaking English and so I can understand what they know/don’t know better. I’ve gotten some questions that make me wonder about their impressions of America. Several students have asked me if military service is compulsory. Some have asked me if everyone owns a gun. The headmaster of the school in Anshan said he saw "American Pie" and he wanted to know if people really have parties like that. Many times they want me to compare America and China, which always makes me uncomfortable because they are extremely nationalistic so if I compliment China, it is a personal compliment and if I tell them something I don’t like it is a personal insult. So, I will always point out differences with, “not that one is better than the other, they are just different”.

The students who were Level 2 last year are now in Level 3 (their last year of high school) and they don’t have a lesson with a foreign teacher. The Level 1s I had last year have also moved up and the middle school students who scored high enough on their tests are now Level 1s. What is odd is that I recall that last term thinking that my Level 2s were not quite as engaging as my Level 1s and it seems to hold true this term. I guess when they are new to the high school they are really excited to be there and so they pay more attention and try harder but by their second year, the thrill of the new school has worn off. Trevor has said he noticed the same thing.

It has been very nice to have Trevor here so there is someone to laugh with about the surrounding craziness or grumble with about the things that are frustrating. A couple days after he arrived, we were walking around and passed an old man who tried to spit on the sidewalk, only it didn’t work too well, and he ended up with a slobber string dangling from his chin. It was really funny looking but it wasn’t until I heard Trevor laughing beside me that I started to laugh too…and then I couldn’t stop. It was in that moment that I realized how long it had been since I had laughed really hard about something because you really need someone there laughing along with you to sustain the joke. I think this term will be a bit easier if for no other reason than Trevor and I can keep each other in good humor.

On Friday, I will be leaving to go to Greece for a week so my next post will be my out-of-China experience!

Thoughts from Trevor

I asked Trevor, the new American teacher who arrived in Taian about a week and a half ago, to write a guest post for my blog of his impressions of China. This is what he sent me:

We Americans describe the word diarrhea as: (di·ar·rhe·a) Excessive and frequent evacuation of watery feces, usually indicating gastrointestinal distress or disorder.

However, if you ask a Chinese person about diarrhea, they would would respond with,"What is diarrhea?"

You see the Chinese have no such word, because every bowel movement they've ever had has been diarrhea.

As far as the Chinese are concerned, there is no such thing as a piece of solid fecal matter. If they were to ever pass a solid piece of poop they would probably think they were sick. No doubt they would rush to their local hospital where they would be tested for every medical condition from high blood pressure, to the HIV virus.

Rumor has it that a man from Taian once had a case of solid fecal matter so severe that he had to fly to Beijing for a CAT scan. Once in Beijing, the man was held for nearly a month for medical research.

Diarrhea is just as much a part of Chinese culture as chopsticks, or wearing the same pair of clothes everyday.

Though we Americans find the symptoms of extreme cramping and excessive pain associated with diarrhea to be uncomfortable, the Chinese actually find it to be a rewarding experience. They don't just like to have diarreah; they love to have diarrhea. Sometimes, having diarrhea is the best part of their day. When a Chinese person wakes up in the morning they say,"What a beautiful day! The only way to make this day more beautiful would be to doo-doo on myself." There are only a few causes for diarrhea in the U.S., which include food poisoning, dehydration, and watching Varsity Blues. Causes for diarrhea in China include literally everything. You don't even have to ingest food or liquid to get diarrhea. Taking a walk can cause diarrhea. Playing cards can cause diarrhea. Having an IV put in can cause diarrha. Even having diarrhea can cause more diarrhea.

The Surgeon General's warning on a pack of American cigarettes will warn of the dangerous of cancer and damage to unborn babies. On a pack of Chinese cigarettes, you will find a disclaimer from the cigarette manufacturer that reads,"Smoking cigarettes will cause anal leakage. The makers of this product and their subsidiary companies bareno responsibility for the staining of any underpants. Please enjoy with caution."

On a personal note, I believe the Chinese take great pride in their diarrhea, or at least should. The diarrhea here has got to be the most foul and disgusting substance ever excreted from a human body, ever. Each sloppy mass is more horrifying to look at than then next. Just the thought is enough to make me vomit. I would rather watch a bullet go through a person's eye than look at some of the diarrhea here. My hope is that the the witnessing of these horrific viewings will not haunt me in my dreams for years to come. Here's to you China, and your diarrhea.

Qian Shan

The Liaoning Province is not a huge tourist destination but one place that the people here are very proud of is Qian Shan (Thousand Mountain) National Park. Altogether it is 125 sq. kilometers, 44 sq. kilometers (about 27 miles) of which is planned for sightseeing. It is a place sacred to both Buddhists and Taoists. They say that, "There is no peak that is not marvelous, no rock that is not precipitous, no temple that is not quaint, nor any place that is not quiet." I'm not so sure I agree with the quiet part but the drone of insects was a welcome change to the sounds of construction and traffic that I usually listen to.

When I arrived at the park, one of the first things I passed was a station with little open-air carts like the things Disneyworld uses to transport people from the parking lots. I was so excited to be in nature, however, that I opted to walk. I was given a map (albeit a rough one) but I chose to mostly ignore it. I was in my element! Tons of places to explore and all of them spectacular! So I wanted to just wander wherever struck my fancy.

I passed a couple of old ladies foraging in the woods. This place, one of the only undeveloped places I've seen, is a source of the more "wild" plants such as herbs for medicines.

I had only been walking for about ten or fifteen minutes when I became aware that I was being followed. The guy wasn't being particularly secretive about following me but when I made it apparent that I had noticed he tried to speak to me but I couldn't understand what he was saying. I called my assistant and let him translate over the phone and he said that because I was a foreigner and I was there alone (and of course the Olympics were cited), this guy was supposed to follow me around for my protection. I was really annoyed by this because it is difficult to be immersed in the grandeur of the mountains and the serenity of nature when someone is tailing you. I told Ricky to tell the guy to go away (in nicer terms) but Ricky said he couldn't.

I lost him soon enough when I veered off the main road onto a side path that began climbing higher and higher. I wasn't sure where I was headed and it turns out I was beginning the climb of my life--up the highest peak in the park. There were stone stairs that I was climbing but don't think it was any easier because of it! The stairs kept getting narrower and narrower and more and more steep. In some places they were no more than four inches wide and probably ten to twelve inches high. Sometimes the stairs were carved into the mountain itself and sometimes they gave up on stairs altogether and simply carved footholds in the rock. I'm not sure how high I climbed but it was definitely challenging and exhilarating. It turns out that there were two ways up the peak and I had taken the more difficult of the two (which I probably would have chosen anyway). When I finally reached the top, the views were absolutely breathtaking. The drama of the rising and falling of the thousand mountains is the kind of landscape China is known for. It was incredible to see the temples perched on the ledges like eagle's nests.

There are over thirteen temple sights in the park and I only got to visit some but the ones that I did see were very impressive. All of them were wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bright paint, murals, carvings, statues, candles, flowers, incense, bells, offerings, and more. People came to the temples to pray and pay respects. The air was filled with the heavy smell of burning incense and some of the incense sticks were so large they looked more like very large fireworks.

After climbing back down from the first mountain, I decided to take the cableway up another one, which again offered some magnificent views. From this location there was a mountain top walk, which I decided to take. It was two miles of stairs. Yes, my knees and my muscles are feeling it today.

I feel like I finally got a chance to see some of what China has to offer so I get some satisfaction out of that. Qian Shan was a breath of fresh air on so many levels. I will be returning to teaching tomorrow but, of course, I don't know what the schedule is!

To Market, To Market

This post is long overdue. One of the most fascinating places here, the market, is also one of the most notable as a symbol of town-culture in China. The market is a street, maybe a half mile long, with shops on either side and running down the center is the farmer's expo.

I did not record everything I wanted to from the market mostly because I was feeling extremely self-conscious. I am conspicuous enought but when I have a camera in my hands... I decided to add commentary to the movie rather than talk as I was recording.

The Other School

A while back, I decided I wanted to make a little extra money so I began looking for a second job. All of the teachers I know here (not that I know many) taught extra classes at other schools as free-lance jobs or taught private lessons. Most of the teaching opportunities, however, were in Anshan, which is a two-hour bus ride from Taian so I was not really keen to commit myself to making that trip every weekend.

My opportunity finally came a little over a month ago when I negotiated with a private language and music school to teach some classes for them. It was a bit of a rocky start since they failed to inform me that they had schools throughout the Liaoning Province that they wanted me to teach at and I got a little upset on the first day when I was ushered into a car by people I didn't know and who didn't speak English and taken to a village. Since then, however, things have been ironed out and I've really enjoyed the classes I've done for them. The students are younger than my high school students. Their ages range from six to about eleven or twelve and their bright-eyed excitement in class is a breath of fresh air and a teacher's dream. They have a desire to learn that can only be found in places where school is unimportant if not denied entirely.

A couple of weeks ago, this school had a "party", as they called it (I would call it a promotional concert), here in Taian. It was sort of a celebration of the Olympics. They asked me to sing as part of the show and I agreed, if for no other reason than to show them my appreciation for giving me my second job. I had a little trouble coming up with a song. I rejected a suggestion that I sing "Fat Bottom Girls" by Queen (thanks anyway, Ben) and I didn't want to sing something they knew already or I would be singing "My Heart Will Go On". In the end, I settled on "Sunrise" by Norah Jones. I had a karaoke version for my iPod, which I was told, they could plug into the speakers for me.

I enjoyed the concert because I got to see the children play some traditional instruments including a hulusi. This instrument has three bamboo flutes that pass through a gourd. They also played a dizi, which is another type of flute, and the guzheng, the plucked zither. I've included a short video of some of the performances. The last bit is the school's teachers. You can hear in the video how awful the sound was. You know that screechy noise when you have the volume turned up past the capacity of your speakers? Well, multiply it for how loud things were. What was even worse was that when it was my turn, I found that the speakers for the music projected on the stage but the speaker for the microphone did not so I couldn't hear myself. It was terrible, and I only know because I gave my camera to a friend. I will NOT be posting that performance, however, I will add a captured image. And just so you can appreciate the magnitude of this embarrasment, I've included a shot of the crowd. I'm pretty sure half of Taian was there.

Unfortunately, a representative of the high school called me and said that I shouldn't be teaching for this other school. I've tried to understand why, since as I've said, other teachers have extra classes, and they only reason I can get is that it has something to do with the Olympics. I am being told that it is a governmental decision that all classes must stop for the Olympics but I'm not sure I believe it...I think there is something else going on. I'm still investigating this and I hope we can get it all straightened out.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

I am standing at the half-way point. Five months down, five more to go (not including the 15 days in January). Oh, yes, I've been keeping track, but then again, that is just the type of person I am (planner/organizer/time conscious).

People sometimes ask me if I'm having fun in China. I usually answer that my idea of "fun" is good food, good wine, and good conversation, all of which are difficult to find here (the food is not bad but all of the food has the same basic ingredients so after five months...). That being said, I don't hate it. I enjoy teaching my students and they enjoy my classes and I always value new experiences. The perspective I am gaining by living in China is life-altering. I believe more people should live in a different country and experience how other people live.

Before coming here, I tried not to create too much of an image of what living in China would be like. The biggest surprises for me come from the isolation. Taian is not a small town in numbers but it is a small town in resources. This fact has been driven home since I adopted Tuza. According to all of the resources I've checked, hay is a vital element in a rabbit's diet. I have searched high and low for hay here and can't find any. I even checked in Anshan, which has been a God-send when I've needed something. Things became even more desperate when Tuza started becoming ill four or five days ago. I'm not sure what the source of his illness was but he was drooling and not eating. I took him to an animal hospital (an eight-foot by sixteen-foot room that was cluttered, filthy, and stank of urine) but I was not confident in the vet's ability to help Tuza since rabbits are rarely, if ever, kept as pets here. She was, however, an extremely nice person who is helping my rabbit for free. All I had to do was take a few pictures. It has been difficult with the communication barrier but I've been taking him in to see her twice a day for some injections and for the past two days she has given me a medication that I mix with water and hand-feed him with a needle-less syringe every half-hour. It has been extremely hard on me. I've not had him long but I'm very attached to him. I have never been so frustrated with being here than I feel now since I know in the States I would have the resources to help him...or at least have him put to sleep so he would not have to suffer.

The situation with Tuza brings the second hardest thing about being in China into sharp relief: loneliness. I've never been a social butterfly and I often sought solitude in the past but this has been a rather extreme exercise in self-reliance. Being surrounded by people with no one to talk to is like being adrift on the ocean with nothing to drink. All in all, I think I've held up exceptionally well in this circumstance. At least I'm not talking to a volleyball named Wilson yet.

There are still many things I feel like I have yet to do here in China. Many of them center around traveling but that is not as easy as it sounds. People in China (or at least around here) rarely travel. When I was investigating how much it would cost me to get to Beijing and the best way to go (train or bus) I asked four or five of my classes and only one student in all of these classes (each with 60 or more students) had been to China's capital city and that was when she was six or so!

Although I am still learning new words, I've pretty much given up on the hopes of becoming fluent (or even proficient) in Mandarin. I don't feel too bad about it though. Oskar, a teacher in Anshan from London, just married one of the Chinese-English teachers and said he is all set to stay in China. He has been here for a couple years and his Chinese is still poor (his wife's English is excellent--she lived in Ireland for a few years).

At any rate, I think the next five months will be easier since I have learned how to negotiate my way through Chinese culture, geography, politics, social interactions, and so forth. Thanks to all of you who are following me on this journey and sharing your encouragement. It really means a lot to me and it helps enormously!

#1 Class

Lets start by making a long story long.

The school term ended on July 4th (technically) but the students needed to take an exam and then they had two days rest before starting up summer classes. I kept asking Ricky what the summer schedule was going to be and he kept giving the usual answer, "The school didn't make a decision yet." On the evening of the second day of rest, Ricky called me and told me I was teaching the first class the next morning and that he would give me the rest of the schedule when I got there. Well, the "rest of the schedule" turned out to be a three day plan. What was happening after that, I asked. "The school didn't make a decision yet." On the third day, I was given a new schedule for the next ten days after which the school would have a holiday. For how long? "The school didn't make a decision." The next day, Ricky had to come to my house in the evening to give me some last minute changes to the schedule. On day two of that schedule, it was decided that the students who had just completed the second year (of three) of high school would move into the third year building. They do not have lessons with a foreign teacher their third year so my schedule changed again. By the end of the week, I was asking, what next? "The school didn't make a decision yet." Since the schedule had changed, the undetermined holiday after the ten days of work went out the window but I knew it would be coming eventually. I just had to wait for the school to make a decision. As I was getting ready for work the second to last day of the most recent schedule, Ricky called me. "The school made a decision. We are done with classes. You are free." "When will we start again?" "The school didn't make a decision."

Two days later, Ricky called me again. I had to teach three more days. WHAT?! This is getting absolutely ridiculous! He explained to me that the middle school students who would be starting at the high school would be there. It turns out it was only one class--what they refer to as the #1 class--that I was spending three afternoons with. The middle school students take a test and the top 50 students based on the scores are put in a class together.

So, the first day I just introduced myself to them and I had them pick their English names and they asked me questions.

The second day we went on a fieldtrip of sorts. I was pretty excited to go since I don't get to do much touring. It was a bit of a let-down as far as tours go but I had to remind myself, this is China, home of simple pleasures.

The first place we stopped was the government center in Tai'an. There was a very large square here, which I was told was modeled after Tiananmen Square. I've not been to Beijing yet but I've seen pictures of Tiananmen Square and I didn't see the resemblance. The students kept asking me what I thought of it and if I liked it. I wasn't really sure what to say. I tried to explain to them that my idea of a beautiful setting was something UNdeveloped but I don't think they understood. Most of them have never seen "wild" landscapes. In all of my forays through the Liaoning Province it is all towns or farms.

Our next stop was a museum built for a general (can't remember his name) who was born in Taian. He is sort of their claim to fame. There is a very large statue of him in the city-center's traffic circle. The third stop was the Industrial Park. The bus stopped at a traffic circle and everyone got out. This was it. Again, I wasn't really sure what to make it.



The last stop was the park, back in Taian. As we were walking around, we passed an old woman who had baby rabbits. I stopped to pet them and one of my students asked, "Do you like it?" I told him I liked it very much and the next thing I know he hands 10 yuan (around $1.50) to the woman who picks up one of the rabbits by the ears, puts him in a plastic bag, and hands him to me. I took him out of the bag right away and tried to explain to the students that I couldn't keep a pet because I would be returning to my country in January and could not take the rabbit with me. One of the students promised she would take the rabbit when it was time for me to leave. I DID still have the fish tank in my apartment and I DO really miss my cat and the bunny was so cute so I accepted him. I've named him Tuza, which is "rabbit" in Chinese.

On the third day I promised the students we could play sports so I taught them kickball. This was interesting because some of them had never seen baseball either and didn't know the rules. I had a really hard time explaining to one girl the choice between staying safe on a base or running to the next one. Of course, they wanted to play basketball too. I was the only girl who played and the boys kept apologizing if the bumped into me. Later, they all complimented me on what a good runner I am.

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Miscellaneous Part 3

I ate dog. I can't believe I did it! I was having dinner with one of the school administrators and one of the dishes that was brought out was a stew. In it, the server added a meat that I thought might have been eel (not that I've ever seen eel that I can recall). It was a dark grey color and cut in long strips. Nope, not eel--dog. My hosts offered me a piece and I guess I suffered a moment of insanity and agreed to eat it. It was an extremely soft meat and not at all what I would have expected if I had ever expected to eat dog. There wasn't much flavor to the meat itself so most of the flavor came from the stew. All in all, it wasn't bad but still not something I care to make a regular part of my diet.

As if the dog weren't enough, a couple days after, I was having lunch in one of the villages near Taian with some friends and they asked me what I wanted to eat. "Order whatever you want," I said. Imagine my surprise when one of the dishes that came out was a platter of halved bugs. I know my face showed shock and trepidation but, with their encouragement and "hakuna matata" ringing in my head, I ate one. Crunchy and slightly nutty-sweet. Again, not something I would put on my favorite-foods list. I asked what kind of bugs they were and one of the girls went and got a live one for me so I could see it. It looked like a cocoon but it was definitely alive. I took it and one of the prepared ones for some pictures.

Just as a little side story to go with the above, on the way out to the village, I rode in a car with some people who had slip-covers on their car seats and the steering wheel and other surfaces of the car. This in itself is not that extraordinary but it was all an eye-watering pastel pink with embroidered roses and frills. I wish I had my camera! If Umbridge had a car, it would look like this!

I went back to the park to get some pictures of the lotus flowers that are blooming. The first picture is of the lotus pond. It was a rainy day (surprise) and I enjoyed watching the water drops collecting in the leaves that were easily two and a half feet wide.

While I was at the park, I decided to record some of the other images there since I had made a post earlier about the park.

This is a pagoda in the lake and a moon-bridge:

And some people playing cards and Chinese chess:

On my way out, I was spotted by some of my students so I had to spend a few minutes taking pictures with them. Then I had them take a picture for me and one of them posed in front of the "guardian" Mickey.

Here is a demonstration of what I mean when I say the Chinese are easily entertained.

Start with tiny beads:

Add beads to a bottle of water:

Wait one day until--presto:

And that's it! They love it. I've seen these bottles of beads several places. Sometimes I think it must be nice to be so easily entertained, to possess that kind of innocence and then sometimes I really feel like they are deprived of so much...

This picture is of a bottle of water I bought one day. If you don't know why I find it funny, I'm not going to explain it to you.

Dinner with the Headmaster

Ricky, Headmaster Lu, and I enter a small restaurant (and by small, I mean there are three tables). I have eaten here before and like the family that owns the place. It is a couple with three children--something nearly unheard of in China so it can be surmised that they have some connections in the government. We sit down and immediately the headmaster lights up a cigarette. The wife gives us the menu and the husband goes in the back to prepare to cook.

"What do you want to eat?" Ricky asks me.

I give him a disbelieving look. "You know I can't read the menu."

He orders three dishes, an egg, pork, and mushroom dish, sweet and sour pork, and a potato dish. He also orders three beers. The beers are cold rather than the usual slightly-chilled temperature for which I am grateful because it has been a hot day and a feebly rotating table-fan is the only relief in the restaurant. We pour a little into our 3-inch-high glasses, “cheers” each other and drink.

I look at Headmaster Lu and he smiles at me. This is about the only way we can communicate without Ricky's assistance. I know he likes me--he has told me I have good habits. By this he means he appreciates that I show up to work on time, have my lessons prepared and am dressed nicely. Ricky also tells me that it is noticed that I am a good housekeeper. Some of the other foreign teachers hire a housekeeper to do their cleaning and laundry. "You come from a good family," the headmaster says. I agree with him. "Both of my parents work very hard," I tell him. I ask him to tell me about his family.

"I have a daughter," he explains through Ricky, "she is your age. And I have a son who is twenty-nine."

"How old are you?" I ask.

"liu-shi-wu," he says, sixty-five. His mother is eighty-four. "She is very strong. She goes for a walk everyday after dinner. You must exercise if you want to stay healthy," he states as he lights up another cigarette. Other than some facial lines and tobacco-stained teeth, he looks much younger. He is a tall man and fairly lanky. His hair is still black though a few gray strands can be spotted. His eyes are rounder than many of the Chinese and his complextion is fairly tanned indicating that he spends a lot of time outside. Later, I will learn that he has a small garden outside his apartment in Anshan where he grows some flowers and vegetables.

"Have you always lived in the Liaoning Province?" I ask him.

"Yes. My family was very poor. We all slept in one room. I went to Sunyi High School. Then I went to the university in Anshan. Then I became a high school teacher. Later, the government asked me to teach at the teacher’s college. Then I returned to be headmaster at the school." Sunyi High School is the name of the high school I teach at. I tell him I didn't realize it was that old and I ask him if he was a good student. "Dui," he replies, yes.

I ask him to tell me what Taian was like when he was a boy. He explains that when he was born, the Japanese occupied this part of China. "China was very poor then. Mao Zedong told us to work hard and make a better life."

"Will you tell me about Mao?" I ask. I'm not sure if it is polite of me to do so but he seemed eager enough.

"Mao was from a poor family. He was in the army and worked very hard. He told the people to make China great and we worked very hard. Now we have a lot of food to eat," he indicated our dishes, "but there are a lot of people in China to feed. Some people are still poor. We are still working hard to make China great--to make Mao's dream come true. Mao Zedong admired America's George Washington."

"Yes," I tell him, "I can understand why."

"Later in life," the headmaster continues, "Mao made a mistake. He trusted the wrong people." I ponder this point. I have noticed that the Chinese tend to have a hard time trusting others. Our office is padlocked whenever we are not there, my friend wanted to walk on the other side of the street with me when some people were trying to ask her questions, store attendants will follow customers around while they are shopping, and I'm not supposed to go out by myself after dark are a few examples I have seen of mistrust.

Still, there is a cheery innocence here that I have not observed in America. "The Chinese are very happy people," I say. "Do you think this is because there are still people who remember what it was like to be very poor?"

He seems to think about this but is not sure how to answer. "We will teach our children to appreciate what they have," he says finally. He lifts his glass to me, "gan bei," he toasts, bottoms-up.

On Beauty

Last week Ricky informed me that a new foreign teacher had been hired to begin in September. He told me that many people had applied but this guy “was the best”. I asked why and he said, “He is the most handsome.” This pretty much confirms something I have suspected for a while: the Chinese have an extreme prejudice when it comes to physical appearance.

As part of the application process, all teachers must submit a photo. I thought this was for security purposed but it turns out they use it to judge your application. They hire attractive teachers (foreign and Chinese) because the students are more receptive to them. I have met dozens of teachers and I can only think of two who looked to be over 50. So as much as I would like to think it was my teaching experience that got me through the door here, I must accept that they hired me because they consider me beautiful. However, I consol myself with the fact that the students must also like my teaching because physical appearance could only hold them enraptured for so long and I have been given summer classes to teach (by my request) because my classes remain “so popular”.

The Chinese idea of beauty is a slender body, big eyes, and pale skin. The latter is of some amusement to me because in the States, being as white as I am is not desirable but here I am complimented on my pale complexion. When I have been out with someone, they assume I would want to remain in the shade to maintain my color. Many women carry around parasols when it is sunny outside. I, on the other hand, seek out the sunlight on the rare occasions I can catch it.

Being fat has a stigma attached to it. There are not nearly as many over weight people here and they make it clear that being fat makes you the odd-one-out. A student once wrote me a letter in which she said, “I’m Iris, remember me? I’m the fat girl.” I also know some of the other foreign teachers are criticized for their beer-guts.

On the other hand, I have seen great tolerance for differences. One of my students has a face and hands that are badly scarred as if she was burned and another has twisted legs and can only walk with extreme difficulty. These girls, however, are treated as equals without contempt or pity.

The people here react differently to beauty than Americans. It is hard to explain but in America there is more of a desire to possess an attractive person whereas in China there is more of a reaction of admiration or awe. The culture here is far less sexually driven and the Chinese people are shy in general, which I think accounts for the differences.

Although they might put a beautiful woman on a pedestal, most women work on equal ground with men. Many people might think the gender roles are stronger in China than in the States since it is a developing country but I have not observed this to be the case. In fact, women hold just as many high positions as men. I would say one of the reasons for this is that women spend less time in the home raising children given the one-child policy and I have seen men on the street with children just as often as women. So, there is no bread-winner and home-maker demarcation. This is not to say that China is full of independent women, however. Strength and independence in general are not prized personality traits.

"Cooking" with Audra

"Liang Pi" is a food sold by street vendors (sort of like how you would buy a hot dog in the city). The noodle is made of wheat starch so if you can't find it, its closest cousin would be vermicelli. The ingredients are: cold noodles, shredded cucumber, cilantro, soy bean paste/jam, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic-water, and if you want to add some kick, chili oil.

Myth Busters

Are the Chinese people all super-intelligent?
School is very important to the Chinese culture. There are enormous pressures on students to do well in school in general but on certain exams in particular. I’ll save my tirade on learning vs. rote memorization for some other time. There is a great emphasis on the maths and sciences and the students here work at a more advanced level than I have seen in American schools. For example, they study electric circuits in middle school and organic chemistry in high school. I am told they have art class and such but I don’t really see the result of this. In other words, the liberal arts education has suffered for the sake of the hard sciences—some people may not think this is a big deal, but I think it leads to a lack of creativity.

Do the Chinese play ping pong?
Yes. As I mentioned, they like to play basketball, that kicking game (I’ve been told the name of it but I can’t remember), and they also like badminton and ping pong (though they refer to it as table tennis when talking to me, so I guess they don’t realize that we recognize it by its Chinese name). I couldn’t resist teaching them how to play the college version aka beer-pong…but only in theory of course!

Do the Chinese eat dog?
Yes, I’ve asked about this and I am told that there are certain restaurants that you go to for dog, for which I am grateful because I know I won’t eat dog on accident. According to Ricky, dog is an expensive dish, though he couldn’t explain why. This seems a little strange to me since it is not like dogs are rare…but I guess they are not just picking strays off the street…

Do the Chinese eat fortune cookies?
I have not seen a single fortune cookie since I’ve been here. I tried explaining to my students once what a fortune cookie was and how iconic it is as part of the Chinese-American culture but they had no idea what I was talking about. They do have what they call fortune-dumplings, which is a dumpling with a coin amongst the filling. Sounds like a good way to crack a tooth to me.

Do the Chinese eat rice with every meal?
Actually, no. I have never seen rice served as a dish. It is readily available, however, since every house and restaurant has it; all you have to do is ask for it and you will get a small bowl. I am told that many people eat rice for breakfast, but since I have never eaten breakfast with people here, I don’t know what these dishes look like.

Are all Chinese kung-fu fighters?
Again, no. I have not seen a single person practicing anything remotely close to a martial art. I’ve asked Ricky about this too and he says that you can find fighting schools in the city, but it seems much less prolific than one might believe. Beyond that, the people here don’t seem to fight much at all. I have seen a few people throw play-punches and I can tell they have never learned how to throw a proper punch. Granted, I’m tougher you’re your average girl, but I’m pretty sure I can kick anybody’s butt around here. People do practice Tai Qi pretty often and they “exercise”, which is in quotations because the exercises I have observed are not strenuous for muscles nor are they cardio workouts. However, whatever they do, it must keep them fit because I have seen many more old people here out and about and they seem, on average, more agile than the elderly I have observed in America.

Are the Chinese, in general, a small people?
There are some people here who barely reach past my navel with their heels on. Of course, there are some taller people too. I think the height difference between men and women is slightly less than what I observe in other races and I am about as tall as most of the men so I am a few inches taller than most of the women.

What do the Chinese think of their own government?
This one is tricky because I’ve been told flat-out, “we don’t talk about politics”. That in itself is a big indicator to me. At the same time, as I have said before, the Chinese are a pretty happy people and to work for the government is to have an honorable and prestigious job. I think in general, the people believe that the government has their best interest at heart and that what their government does it for the good of the country. Of course education is never unbiased so what the students learn here is certainly colored. I have been told that when the lesson on the Cultural Revolution is given in history, that a party representative sits in the classroom.

What do the Chinese think of the rest of the world?
Of course China has some serious cultural pride, but what country doesn’t? Sometimes I am surprised at the things my students don’t know about world history, geography, and culture, but then again, it may not be that they don’t know it, it might just be that we don’t understand each other. Coming from a country of immigrants where I am constantly exposed to cultural differences, I do think that the Chinese are sheltered from the rest of the world. It should be noted, I am in Taian which is rather remote, and might have a different impression if I were in a city.

Taxi Ride

On Thursday and Friday morning, Ricky and I take a taxi to the middle school. I've been talking about the crazy traffic patterns here so I decided to bring my camera with me to record the trip so you can see for yourself. I made two recordings, one on Thursday and one on Friday. Friday's was a bit better but I decided to upload them both. It is difficult to get the big picture from the limited view of the camera but I did manage to capture some of the ordinary but spectacularly crazy things you can see on the road.

The blue trucks you see are usually driven by government laborers and I call them wheelbarrow trucks because they only have one wheel in the front. The tall, skinny vehicles you see are also taxies (sort of a motorized bike) but I am told they are not safe so I avoid them. At the end of day 2, the cars with pink balloons on top are wedding cars that are taking guests from a ceremony to a reception.

The driver is a friend of Ricky's but don't ask me what they are talking about because I have no idea.

Miscellaneous, Part 2

I will start this post by talking about the earthquake, which as you can imagine, has been a major topic lately. We did not feel the quake in Taian and life goes on as normal here. The students collected donations from each other to send to the victims and those helping them and for days there was a town-wide three-minute prayer said at 2:28 in the afternoon for the people killed, injured, or otherwise harmed by the event. It is indeed a tragedy that will take a long time to heal from but among all the images of death and waste, you can also see images of people helping and giving. It is often in these times of disaster when the human spirit can find its greatest strength. There are moments when I despair the seeming lack of goodness in people but during these times of hardship, the compassion that is demonstrated renews my hope.

I am beginning to feel fairly well-adjusted here as I have become more comfortable with my surroundings and have fallen into a routine. I am not picking up the language as quickly as I would like and am finding that often even when I know I am using the correct words, people don’t understand me. I think this has to do with my pronunciation. My theory is that, while in America, we are used to hearing different accents and can understand them, the lack of foreigners here means that the Chinese people are not used to hearing non-native speakers. They do tell me, however, that people speak with different accents in different parts of China. I explained that it is the same in America and proceeded to give them some of my best accent impressions, which they found very amusing.

I often find occasions to laugh during my lessons. Sometimes I am laughing at myself trying to explain things when I don’t have my dictionary handy like the time I was trying to communicate an attitude and how it might be expressed. I did an ultra-exaggerated urban oh-no-he-didn’t while snapping my fingers in the Z formation. It was even funnier to see them copy me. Other times I am laughing at the students because they do really odd things. One day I watched as a boy leaned back in his chair, balance a book on his face, and just sit there. I have no idea what he was doing but I know he wasn’t doing it for attention because he became really embarrassed when he realized I was watching. Another day, I saw a boy in the back of the classroom waving something smoking in the air. It took me a while, but I finally pieced together that he was burning some incense because his feet stank. I suggested he keep his shoes on.














This picture is of a piece of candy one of the students gave to me. I tried explaining to them what “candy corn” is to Americans so they would understand why I found the candy so amusing but I don’t think they understood. I did eat it to see what it would taste like and I think it would be better as a Bertie Bott’s bean than a hard candy.

I was caught a little off guard one day when I was walking down the street and saw a mother in the squat position holding her baby (looked to be about a year old) in a sitting position while he pooped on the sidewalk. His pants were not pulled down; rather they had the crotch seam split. Since then, I have noticed that this is a general trend—you can catch glimpses of little baby bottoms since they all have the seam split out of their pants and wear nothing underneath. I have seen diapers in the supermarket, so I know they are an option, but I guess it is just much easier to let them do their business on the sidewalk. If you come to China, watch where you step.

A Day in Anshan

Taian is too crowded to be considered the country but too small to be a city. I often bemoan the fact that living in Taian is like living in a city without the conveniences of the city. For this reason, I had to make another trip into Anshan. A representative of the school met me at the bus station to help me complete my errands. Her name English name is Fairy (or at least that’s how she says it—I have never seen it written).

Fairy and I have met on several occasions and I was glad to have her with me because she speaks English well and one of the things I wanted to do was get my hair trimmed. I could do this in Taian but I was very nervous about it since my hair is different from the hair of the Chinese in texture and, in some ways, style. How many times have you gone to get your hair cut and asked for things to be one way but ended up with something different? It is difficult enough when you speak the same language but add a language barrier and I’m sure you can sympathize with my hesitation. I wanted to go to the salon with someone who spoke good English so they could understand exactly what I wanted and communicate it to the person cutting. Even though my hair is getting really long, longer than I would usually like it, I decided just to ask for a trim since it is the simplest thing to do. Fairy must have been very clear that all I wanted was a trim because the guy who was cutting my hair seemed reluctant to cut the length. It was one of the most modest cuts I’ve ever had in terms of the amount cut yet it took almost 45-minutes. He cut a little wet, blow-dried a section, cut some more, checked the length, cut a little more…always very small amounts at a time. I think he could have been done in 15 minutes but he seemed to like playing with my hair.

One of the other things I had to do in Anshan was send money to the States. I mentioned before that I make three times what the other teachers make but I’m not living the high life here because I still have bills in the States to pay so I need to send almost all of it. Fairy said that I could Western Union the money at the post office but first I had to take it to the money-changers to convert my RMB to US dollars. So, I had 8000 RMB in my purse, which is currently just over $1,100 and I was following Fairy as she approached some stately looking buildings. I figured we were going to a bank of sorts but she stops just outside one of the buildings where, sitting on the bottom step, there are three little old ladies in polo t-shirts and sunhats, resembling retirees who might be part of a bridge club. Fairy started talking to them then one pulls a fat roll of $100 bills out of her handbag. They must not have been associated with the building; it was just where they set up shop. It was so bizarre and I was so surprised I actually started laughing. It was like being in the movie, Men in Black, where people aren’t what they seem. In case you are wondering, I did check the bills to make sure they weren’t counterfeit.

Getting around Anshan is more difficult than getting around Taian because it is bigger and more crowded. I was thinking not that long ago that crossing the street in Taian takes a lot of the same characteristics one uses when sparring with the long sword: initiative, audacity, awareness, and commitment. If there are traffic rules, they are "more like guidelines" (movie quote :D) so cars can come from any direction at any time. This is multiplied in Anshan where there are wider streets, more cars, and more pedestrians. Crossing the street in Anshan is more like “Frogger”. Some streets have “walk” signals but this does not necessarily mean it is safe to cross the street since the traffic rules are largely ignored by the drivers and if the light changes while you are in the intersection, the cars will go around you. So, to cross the street, Fairy and I found ourselves crossing a lane, waiting in between lanes for some cars, crossing another lane, waiting for a bus to pass, and so on to get to the other side.

While I was in Anshan, I decided I wanted to buy a toaster-oven, an item which has been on my list for some time now. Fairy took me to a shopping center that would put a Wal-Mart Super Center to shame. Six stories of shopping bliss plus an underground grocery store! It is not quite a mall, since there aren’t different stores, but there are different brands, or in some cases, different vendors to choose from. Two floors are dedicated to women’s clothes. Fairy asked me if I like the clothes and I told her I find many of them too “cute” for my taste—a lot of puffy sleeves and hems, baby-doll looks, frills, etc. The appliances are on the top floor and amongst them I saw microwaves, percolators, scales, and more rice cookers than you can shake a stick at. I did manage to find a toaster-oven and can now enjoy pop-tarts (sent by my parents) hot!

A Walk in the Park

The weather has warmed up considerably over the past week so I decided to take a walk through a park that is a short distance from my apartment the other day. I don't really have much experience with city parks but this one seemed to hold many of the characteristics I have come to expect from the Chinese, namely, a lot of seemingly unrelated things thrown together.

The entrance to the park is a tall, grey wall with a metal gate. It is a good thing they put a hanging Mickey Mouse (I think he lights up at night) on the wall or it would be quite ugly. Once inside, I was drawn to the left where a small lake sprawled and decided to walk around it. One side of the lake is on the border between the park and the town with only a narrow walkway and fence in between. The other side of the fence mostly looked like a site of demolished houses since there were bricks everywhere. On the lake, I saw a couple people in paddle boats and on one of the banks I saw a man drawing lake water to help him wash his motorcycle.

As I was finishing the circuit around the lake, I was surprised to come across a couple of bears. There is a miniature zoo of sorts and, although I didn't get a chance to go in, I saw maybe fifteen cages some with animals and some empty. I don't think the animals are here full time--I think they travel to a town, visit for a while, then move on to the next town.

Next to the zoo is a grassy area with a winding path and several odd monuments. Some of them were odd in the modern-art sense but others were odd because they didn't look like they belonged there at all, especially the Danish windmill. Too small to be real but too large to be for miniature golf, I have no idea what it is supposed to mean. There were some people running around these paths in fatigues and, although I'm fairly used to seeing this now since the students wear them, it turns out that these guys are actually part of the army. Some of them tried to talk to me but my Chinese is still not very good and they didn't speak any English at all so it was mostly an exercise in futility.

A walkway under carved and painted wood (quite beautiful) leads off into a carnival-like area with rides and games and what I assume is like a haunted house for kids given the noises that were coming out of it. I decided not to engage in puke-inducing frivolity on spinning rides for that day.

There is a good bit of nature in the park, however contrived, in the form of trees and shrubs. It seems a good place to take pictures, a fact that was supported when I spotted a newly-wed couple and photographer there. (Just as a side note: her dress was actually quite tame compared to the ones I described previously.) Many of the older people I observed were playing games like Chinese chess aka xiang qi or card games. The general atmosphere was cheerful but relaxed. Unfortunately, for my part, I cannot be totally at ease there because I still draw a lot of attention even with all the available distractions. While on my walk, I had the constant urge to wipe my nose thinking that I surely must have a booger sitting on it. Regardless, I think I'll be spending quite a lot of time in the park during the summer months.