"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.

Through the Window

A couple weeks ago I took the bus to Anshan. On the way, I recorded some of the scenes. I apologize for the shaking and fast moving cinematography...and for the music. This is an attempt to share more of the general atmosphere here but I don't think it comes through very clearly. I have said to a few friends that it is a good thing the people here are friendly because it is not a very attractive place to live. I don't think you can see in the video how rundown some of the buildings are nor how barren the landscape.

As I sit here and try to think of words to describe what is around me, I find that I cannot capture the whole picture. I guess what I can say is this: even if the people here are poor by American standards, I have observed that they are happy, perhaps even happier than many Americans. It is a strange phenomena that the more one has, the more one wants. No one here seems to feel sorry for themselves and they take great pleasure in the things that I, too, hold dear such as spending time with friends and family. Last Monday, at a dinner party while I watched everyone eating, laughing, and toasting, it came to me that people try to make happiness a complicated and elusive thing but really, happiness is a simple choice.