It's Monday. It's Halloween. Happy Halloween! And I'm at work. Though there is midnight blue evidence on each finger that perhaps I'm not a grown up, even if I wore a northface fleece, over a button-down shirt, with slacks as I spent almost two hours commuting to work. I now work at Dipont's office on Mondays to help the college counselors.
Last Monday I came in for what I thought would be a meeting and ended up leading a workshop with the counselors. Apparently an assistant does more than assist at Dipont. This is the part of the job I was actually hired for. I had about 2 mins to prepare at my second desk in a cubicle on the 21st floor of downtown Chengdu. All of a sudden I was whisked away to a meeting room and 10 people filed in. I sat at the front table and they all sat opposite me, just like school. And that was the "oh" moment. The, "oh, I'm like leading this." The, "oh, I'm actually like leading this." The, "oh, thank goodness I took all those acting classes as I suppress my real facial expression about 'oh I'm leading this' thought". But seriously, everyone should take improv classes, especially if you ever plan on going to a liberal arts college, majoring in psychology, graduating and going to a farm, and then take a job in China. Okay, so maybe a small percentage of people should, but it is helpful. Being able to lead discussions on anything and being able to think quickly and creatively are skills I somehow possess, probably from improv. Funnily enough last week after the meeting when I was unsure of what I was suppose to do, I picked up a Forbes on graduate programs and found business acting is not only a class, but gaining in popularity.
Which is really funny to me as Occupy movements are spreading worldwide. Not that business acting is all about lying, but I mean...I bet there's a correlation in there somewhere! (and maybe causation, though correlation is NOT causation, as my students hopefully know by now.) So US citizens are standing up about corruption, but students in universities today will be learning those acting skills to get to the top (Which might mean corruption!). Perhaps we need to occupy schools? I dunno, it's very difficult to make corruption illegal, especially when corruption (in the form of lobbyists) bank-rolls our government. In fact it's not really corruption in that sense, just people who've made money spending their money to make more money. So maybe Occupy is also trying to make greed illegal? It's confusing. Which is why I'm not sure where I stand on the Occupy movement. I like the idea, but I am also aware they're costing city's millions in extra police salaries, etc., which leaves less, potentially un-corrupt money to be used for schools or something. Just my thoughts all the way from China.
It's November tomorrow, I left the US October 1st...time is flying! This last week did too. Let's look at the highlights of a foolish Foreign in China.
Friday
-not filling 120 mins of class well
-learning that on Friday the period after lunch starts 50mins earlier than expected (but only being 10 minutes late)
-relaxing and watching "Take me home tonight" finally; been on my movie-bucket list for a while.
Saturday
-making it to Metro with Mark and his wife via cab. Bought barilla pasta (because it brings people insieme, or together, as their ad campaign says) and sauce from the imported section. Best buy of the day: CINNAMON! For anyone that knows me, I have an obsession with cinnamon. But really, what's french toast, banana bread, pumpkin pie, oatmeal, pumpkin bread, snicker-doodles, spice cake, and more without cinnamon? Nothing I say, nothing! Maple syrup was found but probably wasn't real as it was too cheap. Should have brought maple sugar/syrup from the farm!
-Hung out with Maggie & Lynette to get tea and eventually out on the town with Maggie and Elliot exploring pubs, street food, and well-light bridges.
Sunday
-Carrefour trip: another grocery store that also has some imported food. Better produce than walmart, though I ended up with almost none as I forgot to weigh it. So silly! They loose money! I would go weigh in then, but oh well. I'll learn, but I did end up with more spices!
-Watched "Bridesmaids", really because Cynthia had it (purchased from a movie market cart) and also because Hannah Jo, great friend I met in NZ, had a facebook status about it. It had it's moments and was entertaining. Class prep just didn't feel appealing.
Monday
-Getting my way through my 1st college counselor meeting and spent a lot longer at Dipont then anticipated.
-Driven home by marketing director who speaks a bit of English and it took 1.5 hours in gridlock rush-hour traffic
-Watched "Bad Teacher" to see what behaviors to avoid: no sexy car-washes, no drugs, no seducing, no drugging of test officials, and no stealing tests answers. Of course, I didn't do my lesson plans and was instead watching another movie! What can I say? I like films...a lot, maybe even enough to try and go be in them.
Tuesday
-Successfully filling up 80mins of lecture with discussion on psychology perspectives with the winning team's reward being candy and everyone else being awarded cheaper candy. Their discussions were good!
-Grabbed Charles's motor-scooter and Simon drove me to a bakery to order a cake.
-had dinner with Sarah and her mother in their home; finally learned yes and no in Chinese
-successfully used improv skills again with Mark running College Counseling 101 workshop with senior 1 and senior 2 students
-didn't watch a movie
Wednesday
-Plowed through more of Chapter 2: research methods (my least favorite chapter)
-hooked up power point in class with new VGA cable!
-Brought leftovers and ate them for lunch, finally giving myself much more time to work!
-played piano at school!
-judged with Mark and a Chinese teacher, Senior 1 performances of words such as trust, compassion, cooperation, etc. Highly entertaining.
-watched family guy, on television screen thanks to that VGA cable
Thursday
-sneaked in the ordered cake on Tuesday cake successfully
-surprised a overwhelmed-with-tears Sarah on her bday with a card from the teachers and cake
-invited to dinner at Sarah's after she came back from her lunch and told her mom what I had organized
-difficult class; students didn't want to learn
-Magic, one of the students, left with many of the boys and returned after class break for my second period with McDondalds and Cake for his 18th bday. Warm smell of fast food prompted me to speed through lecture to the students' delight.
-dinner at Sarah's
-learned that it will be the year of the dragon on Jan 22nd, my zodiac sign. Apparently supposed to wear red underwear and socks on that day. Even though I'm 1989, I am considered a dragon as the the Chinese new year is based on the moon calendar. In 1989, Feb 6th started the year of the snake, so if you have a feb/jan bday and care about your zodiac you should check when the new year started as it is different every year; a difference not reflected in Western Chinese restaurant place-mats.
Friday
-woke up to BLUE BLUE SKY! Like Midwest blue!
-went over everything we did on Thursday in class just to make sure they got it; they did!
-had make-up test for 5 kids who missed first quiz
-submitted progress reports
-ironed out details with Eugenia about Saturday
Saturday
Eugenia and I woke up early met at McDonalds for coffee and bussed to Xi po (She-poo), where we successfully bought train tickets to 青城山 (Qingcheng Shan) which I can now read. The train goes 195km/hr and the smooth ride passed through the outskirts of Chengdu. I saw some farms on the way! The forecast was for blue, but it was overcast as usual. At our destination, 40 mins and 10 yuan down the track (end of the line), I was sure something was wrong. "But Eugenia, I don't see any mountains?" Then I looked out my window, "oh, my bad, loooook!"
The mountains were shrouded in mist, but slightly visible from the station. Daniel, a young 20-something who works as an English teacher somewhere at my school, and his girlfriend Sarah, both from the UK, saw us and joined our party as we were all headed for Qingcheng Shan (shan = 山, means mountain). They had met some Chinese on the train and we ended up all together on the same bus after picking between the two peaks, one Taoist, one Buddhist. We picked the less trafficked Buddhist one (Qingcheng Houshan) and I was camera ready for my first Buddhist temple climb! (Of course, I currently can't get ANY of my pictures from my camera onto my new computer and I am horribly worried that the memory card was somehow corrupted; as is Sarah who wants her bday pics!)
The bus took us up hairpin turns through small villages and along cliffs to a bigger village high in the mountains. From here we paid 20 yuan for entrance to the village at the base of the climb to the White Cloud temple. Daniel, Sarah, and their new Chinese friends wanted a long lunch, while Eugenia and I had brought food. They sat down, we explored the village a bit, and then returned to the rest of the party. The village was Chinese. I know, I know, I'm in China, but this felt more authentic. Chinese architecture, Chinese laundry, Chinese gutters, small town bliss. Actually, probably just a tourist trap, but there was a temple in the town that did give it some authenticity.
Anxious to go, Eugenia and I found the trail and began our ascent. Climbing in China is very very different for one main reason: stairs. The whole climb is a pathway with stairs. Thousands of stairs. Steeply pitched in places, flatter in others. I know I can climb mountains, but the idea of climbing stairs was not as appealing. There's less control of one's step-size. But somehow, it was not too bad. Maybe because I had the mentality that I was climbing, and not going to work as I do when climbing 5 flights of stairs and feeling out-of-shape.
The Chinese climbers were wearing footwear that ranged from sneakers to stilettos, no joke. As we climbed we passed at least two villages to my surprise. How do they eat? What do the do? No roads, but electricity and apparently internet and satellite TV were observed. Villagers were sometimes friendly and warm food and bottled water was available the whole way up (perhaps what those villages do!). Such a different hiking experience than upstate NY or New Zealand.
After hours of steps and stairs, we made it to a section that clued us in that we were close: statues of Buddhist figures. Between the statues, and the music being played from the last town echoing across, Eugenia and I found ourselves in our adventure film complete with score. One of the songs was a Beatles song, instrumental, slowed-down, and unrecognizable to me, but not to Eugenia. We came up steep muddy stairs and found a cave or arch with hundreds of carved Buddhas in it. And then we passed through a man-made archway, greeted a larger Buddha statue, and came up the final stairs to the Temple of White Clouds.
No pictures allowed inside, usual practice. Trinkets for sale, incense sticks for sell. But I suppose they have no other income, but it was a bit disheartening to see Buddhism and capitalism so close. I placed my offering of Koala bear yummies on one of the temple tables, and if you know me, that is a bit of a sacrifice. But if you know me, then you'll find no surprise that I brought a second one to eat! I purchased some Buddhist wrist beads and decided to have them blessed from the head monk. Afterwards, as we were waiting for Daniel, Sarah, and more, I decided to meditate. Just a simple love and kindness meditation where all of you were thought of! Saying it felt great would be a understatement:
There I was, some 1,000 plus meters up, in a Buddhist temple in China, meditating. I don't think it gets better, especially because I've felt much calmer since, so more of longer-lasting effect. Of course, I'm bummed about the pictures, but maybe they'll work, maybe they won't, fussing won't change the outcome (acceptance). Daniel and Sarah made it to the top. And then we realized we needed to book it down, which meant cable cars! I had wanted to descend naturally, but as we didn't know when buses stopped, I couldn't chance it. We paid too much yuan for a chairlift and then, somehow, got the workers to re-open the cable car which had been closed for an hour. But we made a bus and it was surprisingly nice to get the aerial views from both rides. Of course, maybe everything was nice after meditating at the temple. :)
The experience was wonderful. It was the small adventure I had been craving since working here and it was the most interesting beginning to Halloween night out in Chengdu. From Buddhist temples to Panda Club, dressed as a rockstar (what else is new); a bit of a large transition. But there we were, all quite drunk and quite content with life. It was a fun night, we bumped into Steve, who Cynthia and met weeks prior at Carol's (another foreign bar). Saturday was just good. Oh so good.
Sunday
-successfully waking up!
-getting to Metro by bus alone!
-obtaining Metro card
-buying TOASTER OVEN and pie dish; Thanksgiving, get ready to happen in China! however, I was now in possession of a rather large box. I got on the first bus alright and escaped the rain (which was a bit scary...the sky turned dark amberish and then rain...so overcast just means cloudy; yellow overcast means rain? It was very dark for 2pm). But the second bus, #30/54, is always crowded and I couldn't fit on any of them with the box. All the taxis that were free, weren't! They were all done with their shift or something. I felt stranded and it was raining! So I got a three-wheel, the illegal motorized three-wheel taxi. I said where I wanted to go and he understood (I mean I was speaking Chinese, but pronunciation is difficult!), I then realized I had to barter. I don't know my numbers well, but offered 30 yuan (high, but I just wanted to get home) and he said 20 yuan was fine! I was suprsised at his honesty and hoped in. Foreigners don't usually ride three-wheels, due to language skill and the bumpy ride. And boy was it bumpy! But I got home, faster than bus or taxi as he zoomed through traffic at the speed of peril (or fun). I paid him 30, usually people never accept tips, but he was gracious as was I, my box had gotten quite wet while waiting in the rain, so it was just good to get a ride home.
But before I could set up the toaster oven, I was headed out with Cynthia to the school for Halloween. The Senior 1 and Senior 2 students were all in costume, as was I. Just like before at the club, student after student wanted a picture with me. I've joked to Eugenia and Cynthia that it's Hollywood training. I'm usually patient, but after 5 or so pictures in a row halfway through the evening, I was not as cooperative, because I was supposed to be watching the room! Many of the students said, "oh, Mr. Woj. You are cool." Maybe this means they'll listen more about college than this past Tuesday, hopefully!
And so now I'm at work, eating lunch that one of the other workers pro-actively arrange for me. Apparently there's a student coming soon who wants to go to Vassar. Which means I should probably go check
China is growing on me. All for now.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
And he's back!
Alright I know I posted today already (er yesterday as I look at the time), but that post was written days ago. But this evening, I got internet! Okay so it cost me more than promised, because China Telecom internet doesn't support macs...I don't understand how this is possible, but Mark had the same problem. So he helped me after school today go to a computer store where I bought a second router to connect to the first and this one talks to my Mac! And boom, internet. The VPN is strong now, but seems to have a tendency to fade and might here as it did at the school and Gregory's. I can always change apartments...kidding.
I have a bed. A brand new bed from IKEA. It was more money than I wanted to spend, but knowing it was actually a new mattress was worth it. It's foam, it's beautiful. When it arrived I patiently waited for the deliverers to leave, then tore off the plastic, checked for bugs (can't be too careful in this country), and found NONE. Then I made my bed. Put my cotton quilt on the bottom, then the sheet, then the quilt. Chinese sleep with sheet underneath them over the mattress and the quilt above, washing the sheet and quilt cover. Of course I only bought one set as they were mad expensive, which means laundry day will be interesting with no dryer. Anywho---back to the bed. Once made, I squealed (which is rather funny when a 6'4" person sequels) as I landed on a softer mattress; rolling around laughing hysterically. After 30 mins of ridiculousness, I calmed down and then, of course, wanted to nap. But I went to my desk (cuz I have a desk) in the school to pretend to do work.
Okay not actually pretend, I did work. But I was interrupted by Maggie, Elliot (her friend), and their friends who wanted me to join them at KTV. Unlike my last KTV experience, this place was less dodgey and I wanted to be there cuz I had a bed to celebrate. After a spicy dinner, Lynette, who we met up with, drove me back to my place to have a look. We opened some wine ($12 yuan, so less than $2 wine--like grape juice, so sweet) and opened up the door to Eugenia and Cynthia, my two female co-workers. And after everyone left, there I was all alone with a fresh mattress. We introduced ourselves and I went to sleep on a cloud. Okay, it's not that comfortable, but it's so much better than bugs. I is happy, can youz tell?
But I got ahead of myself. Things happened this week! But I'll be brief as I dislike post-blogging and should get to bed (also: I need 120 mins of material for tomorrow; have 0 mins). Thursday was the opening ceremony of the field day, that strange two-day event where the kids compete in sports and games. And yes, there was an opening ceremony. Essentially, I now know how China got ready for the Olympic games, they start young! Each section of each grade performed a dance/skit/something and marched in unison to the performance space. I led a AP senior 1 class who did a little dance and then watched as one of the girls performed kung fu moves with a sword. Pretty cool. Then I scurried off with Sarah to the police station to register, and to the apartment where we checked on the bug situation. The second mattress still had bugs after the bug-bombing. We washed what was washable and Sarah helped me buy water (like water-cooler water...so drinkable) and Internet (which finally arrived today). I ended the day by going to check out the English corner. At 9pm every Thursday, English majors meet to practice their English. I was swarmed by students before I even stepped onto the corner's grounds. The highlight, a girl asked me where I was from. I said "near Chicago". Her response, "Good for you!" Lynette and I thought this was hilarious and it has become a running joke ever since. I was overwhelmed at the corner and left abruptly, Lynette joking that if I couldn't handle that I couldn't handle Hollywood. We met Maggie and Elliot and headed to a bar and played Hearts of all things. Good fun.
Friday, the washable parts had bugs/maggots crawling and I said enough. Cynthia gave me the idea of buying a new bed, but Sarah was headed out of town. So Cynthia agreed to show me the way to Ikea on Saturday. I worked on my apartment the whole day, cleaning, organizing, making trips to Walmart, etc. and then met up with Charles and Cynthia. We cabbed to downtown, met up with Jessie at Grandma's kitchen. And true to form, anything labeled Grandma's was twice the portion size of anything else. I chose a burger with almost passable BBQ sauce. My body was overjoyed at the change of diet. Then we hit of the bars, met some other expats, a student studying abroad, and had a general night of debauchery.
Saturday started off very very slowly. Somehow Cynthia and I mustered the strength to journey to IKEA. At the subway stop (after the entire route of Bus 30), we saw signs for IKEA on exit signs. Then we saw the IKEA shuttle bus. We decided to walk instead, turned a corner, and in the distance was the biggest IKEA sign I've seen to date. I felt the hype, the IKEA hype. We made a pit-stop at Subway where we wondered how this would work with pointing and then felt stupid as we were greeted in English. Feeling slightly better we made it to IKEA. Escalators full of people ascended into the magic. There was so much hype and excitement. It felt like being in line for a rock concert. We found ourselves in the biggest IKEA ever. A map guided us through the store with some secretive passages between living rooms and kitchens and whatnot. It was ridiculous. We found beds and someone who spoke English. I picked out the bed I had found online and then we snaked our way through droves of people. This IKEA has a restaurant. People were everywhere. Some, clearly just there to hang out and enjoy sitting on furniture. We made it from the third floor to the second and eventually somehow found our way through the chaos to the check-out lines, but not before I'd found a dish drying rack, clothes drying rack, some non-stick ware and glasses. Everything was much cheaper than Walmart. Checking out was complicated, no cash usually, but that's all I had as my cards don't work. And then I found the delivery people and forked over more money for the mattress. Somehow we made it out alive, but our energy was down so some interesting interpretation of New York Cheese Cake and mochas from Starbucks made things a bit better. Cheese is not always well done, but as Cythina pointed out the crust was what was really wrong, it was cake-like. We made it home after spending way too long on an extremely crowded bus and I spent the rest of the night cleaning/organizing after visiting Walmart once more.
Sunday came and went and I was left feeling like I had a home. And when Monday came, my new clean apartment, with functional kitchen, somewhat stocked-fridge (though Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce is in it which is NZ sweet-as), and drinkable water, warmly welcomed the mattress. It was a great start to the week, except going to the KTV on Monday meant I wasn't sure what class was going to be on Tuesday until I was up and rolling.
Tuesday's class was good, I think. I felt a bit prepared. I passed out the first terms/concepts sheets due Friday for the first chapter and we finished up psychology's history. Then I passed out the textbooks, which finally arrived! The students spent the rest of the time looking at the pictures though I insisted they could use this time to start their reading homework. Whatever, they've never had a psych book before. I had noodles with Jessie before my first evening study. I thought I was just going to supervise the students, but Mr. Wang (pronounced Wong) thought I was going to teach college. Not sure how one teaches college, but the senior 2 students really just wanted to tell me I was handsome and take my picture. It was very awkward, but I did teach them some vocab: procrastination. Hey, you gotta start somewhere!
Wednesday's class was good; even more sure of that. I was prepared. I lectured on the different psychological approaches (though the students accused me of making up works like biopsychosocial and psychopharmacology). The bell rang as I was finishing up my last bit of lecture and I was amazed at how well-timed it was. I announced there would be a quiz the following day, which meant I had to go make a quiz. Which of course meant I found myself hanging with Tom, the music teacher at another school who's apartment was robbed. He is very friendly and offered to help me in any way and suggested places to buy things and things to do. He said his family will have me over for dinner some time soon. I am a bit jealous of his job: music teacher/choral director at a school that isn't as dodegy as mine with students who want to learn more than pass the SAT.
Thursday (today...err...yesterday) I waited for internet people to show up while making a quiz. Copying some questions and making up others I put together a 9 multiple choice and 2 short answer question quiz. Internet showed up while I started grading essays (not sure how to grade them as the English is atrocious). Of course, the Internet didn't work cuz I'm in China and nothing every seems to work the way I want it to, but the guy called Sarah who put on Mark who filled me in about the computer store. I got to school, nervous about the quiz, and worked on the second list of terms/concepts. I somehow managed to photocopy both, though the printer jammed every 7th or so quiz. I felt prepared, though not sure how to use up the 80 mins so I decided on some more reading time as they don't really have much other time to get work done. The quiz had them silent and they finished within 20 mins, which is how long I thought it would take them. The only luck I seem to have in this country is in the classroom. But, I'll take it! I had them grade each others and then their SAT scores became available on line and everyone's attention shifted. After the break, I had them check their scores instead of fighting it. I consoled the saddened and celebrated with the gleeful. I gave an impromptu speech on the unimportance of the SAT post college acceptance and then dismissed class early. They were clearly distracted so I assigned more reading and off they went.
Mark invited me over to dinner. I think he has felt bad watching me struggle with the apartment. His Vietnamese wife made homemade spaghetti sauce atop spaghetti. When she heard I was Italian, she grew nervous, but I assured her it was delicious and it was! She also procured Vietnamese iced coffee which was out-of-this-world good. Mark then helped me at the computer store and boom, I'm back in business, back in the present, back with the rest of the world. Damn, I'm internet dependent!
That was fast, brief, but hey...I'm caught up. Which is good and also keep sounding more and more like a teacher. Still not sure how I'm doing this, but some people had almost all the multiple choice right so I've done something right! Though one student had 5 wrong. But I'll work on it and they'll work on it, or at least that's the plan. Still hard to believe I'm in China and this is my life. Perhaps I need to slow down and breath a little. The Chengdu way.
I have a bed. A brand new bed from IKEA. It was more money than I wanted to spend, but knowing it was actually a new mattress was worth it. It's foam, it's beautiful. When it arrived I patiently waited for the deliverers to leave, then tore off the plastic, checked for bugs (can't be too careful in this country), and found NONE. Then I made my bed. Put my cotton quilt on the bottom, then the sheet, then the quilt. Chinese sleep with sheet underneath them over the mattress and the quilt above, washing the sheet and quilt cover. Of course I only bought one set as they were mad expensive, which means laundry day will be interesting with no dryer. Anywho---back to the bed. Once made, I squealed (which is rather funny when a 6'4" person sequels) as I landed on a softer mattress; rolling around laughing hysterically. After 30 mins of ridiculousness, I calmed down and then, of course, wanted to nap. But I went to my desk (cuz I have a desk) in the school to pretend to do work.
Okay not actually pretend, I did work. But I was interrupted by Maggie, Elliot (her friend), and their friends who wanted me to join them at KTV. Unlike my last KTV experience, this place was less dodgey and I wanted to be there cuz I had a bed to celebrate. After a spicy dinner, Lynette, who we met up with, drove me back to my place to have a look. We opened some wine ($12 yuan, so less than $2 wine--like grape juice, so sweet) and opened up the door to Eugenia and Cynthia, my two female co-workers. And after everyone left, there I was all alone with a fresh mattress. We introduced ourselves and I went to sleep on a cloud. Okay, it's not that comfortable, but it's so much better than bugs. I is happy, can youz tell?
But I got ahead of myself. Things happened this week! But I'll be brief as I dislike post-blogging and should get to bed (also: I need 120 mins of material for tomorrow; have 0 mins). Thursday was the opening ceremony of the field day, that strange two-day event where the kids compete in sports and games. And yes, there was an opening ceremony. Essentially, I now know how China got ready for the Olympic games, they start young! Each section of each grade performed a dance/skit/something and marched in unison to the performance space. I led a AP senior 1 class who did a little dance and then watched as one of the girls performed kung fu moves with a sword. Pretty cool. Then I scurried off with Sarah to the police station to register, and to the apartment where we checked on the bug situation. The second mattress still had bugs after the bug-bombing. We washed what was washable and Sarah helped me buy water (like water-cooler water...so drinkable) and Internet (which finally arrived today). I ended the day by going to check out the English corner. At 9pm every Thursday, English majors meet to practice their English. I was swarmed by students before I even stepped onto the corner's grounds. The highlight, a girl asked me where I was from. I said "near Chicago". Her response, "Good for you!" Lynette and I thought this was hilarious and it has become a running joke ever since. I was overwhelmed at the corner and left abruptly, Lynette joking that if I couldn't handle that I couldn't handle Hollywood. We met Maggie and Elliot and headed to a bar and played Hearts of all things. Good fun.
Friday, the washable parts had bugs/maggots crawling and I said enough. Cynthia gave me the idea of buying a new bed, but Sarah was headed out of town. So Cynthia agreed to show me the way to Ikea on Saturday. I worked on my apartment the whole day, cleaning, organizing, making trips to Walmart, etc. and then met up with Charles and Cynthia. We cabbed to downtown, met up with Jessie at Grandma's kitchen. And true to form, anything labeled Grandma's was twice the portion size of anything else. I chose a burger with almost passable BBQ sauce. My body was overjoyed at the change of diet. Then we hit of the bars, met some other expats, a student studying abroad, and had a general night of debauchery.
Saturday started off very very slowly. Somehow Cynthia and I mustered the strength to journey to IKEA. At the subway stop (after the entire route of Bus 30), we saw signs for IKEA on exit signs. Then we saw the IKEA shuttle bus. We decided to walk instead, turned a corner, and in the distance was the biggest IKEA sign I've seen to date. I felt the hype, the IKEA hype. We made a pit-stop at Subway where we wondered how this would work with pointing and then felt stupid as we were greeted in English. Feeling slightly better we made it to IKEA. Escalators full of people ascended into the magic. There was so much hype and excitement. It felt like being in line for a rock concert. We found ourselves in the biggest IKEA ever. A map guided us through the store with some secretive passages between living rooms and kitchens and whatnot. It was ridiculous. We found beds and someone who spoke English. I picked out the bed I had found online and then we snaked our way through droves of people. This IKEA has a restaurant. People were everywhere. Some, clearly just there to hang out and enjoy sitting on furniture. We made it from the third floor to the second and eventually somehow found our way through the chaos to the check-out lines, but not before I'd found a dish drying rack, clothes drying rack, some non-stick ware and glasses. Everything was much cheaper than Walmart. Checking out was complicated, no cash usually, but that's all I had as my cards don't work. And then I found the delivery people and forked over more money for the mattress. Somehow we made it out alive, but our energy was down so some interesting interpretation of New York Cheese Cake and mochas from Starbucks made things a bit better. Cheese is not always well done, but as Cythina pointed out the crust was what was really wrong, it was cake-like. We made it home after spending way too long on an extremely crowded bus and I spent the rest of the night cleaning/organizing after visiting Walmart once more.
Sunday came and went and I was left feeling like I had a home. And when Monday came, my new clean apartment, with functional kitchen, somewhat stocked-fridge (though Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce is in it which is NZ sweet-as), and drinkable water, warmly welcomed the mattress. It was a great start to the week, except going to the KTV on Monday meant I wasn't sure what class was going to be on Tuesday until I was up and rolling.
Tuesday's class was good, I think. I felt a bit prepared. I passed out the first terms/concepts sheets due Friday for the first chapter and we finished up psychology's history. Then I passed out the textbooks, which finally arrived! The students spent the rest of the time looking at the pictures though I insisted they could use this time to start their reading homework. Whatever, they've never had a psych book before. I had noodles with Jessie before my first evening study. I thought I was just going to supervise the students, but Mr. Wang (pronounced Wong) thought I was going to teach college. Not sure how one teaches college, but the senior 2 students really just wanted to tell me I was handsome and take my picture. It was very awkward, but I did teach them some vocab: procrastination. Hey, you gotta start somewhere!
Wednesday's class was good; even more sure of that. I was prepared. I lectured on the different psychological approaches (though the students accused me of making up works like biopsychosocial and psychopharmacology). The bell rang as I was finishing up my last bit of lecture and I was amazed at how well-timed it was. I announced there would be a quiz the following day, which meant I had to go make a quiz. Which of course meant I found myself hanging with Tom, the music teacher at another school who's apartment was robbed. He is very friendly and offered to help me in any way and suggested places to buy things and things to do. He said his family will have me over for dinner some time soon. I am a bit jealous of his job: music teacher/choral director at a school that isn't as dodegy as mine with students who want to learn more than pass the SAT.
Thursday (today...err...yesterday) I waited for internet people to show up while making a quiz. Copying some questions and making up others I put together a 9 multiple choice and 2 short answer question quiz. Internet showed up while I started grading essays (not sure how to grade them as the English is atrocious). Of course, the Internet didn't work cuz I'm in China and nothing every seems to work the way I want it to, but the guy called Sarah who put on Mark who filled me in about the computer store. I got to school, nervous about the quiz, and worked on the second list of terms/concepts. I somehow managed to photocopy both, though the printer jammed every 7th or so quiz. I felt prepared, though not sure how to use up the 80 mins so I decided on some more reading time as they don't really have much other time to get work done. The quiz had them silent and they finished within 20 mins, which is how long I thought it would take them. The only luck I seem to have in this country is in the classroom. But, I'll take it! I had them grade each others and then their SAT scores became available on line and everyone's attention shifted. After the break, I had them check their scores instead of fighting it. I consoled the saddened and celebrated with the gleeful. I gave an impromptu speech on the unimportance of the SAT post college acceptance and then dismissed class early. They were clearly distracted so I assigned more reading and off they went.
Mark invited me over to dinner. I think he has felt bad watching me struggle with the apartment. His Vietnamese wife made homemade spaghetti sauce atop spaghetti. When she heard I was Italian, she grew nervous, but I assured her it was delicious and it was! She also procured Vietnamese iced coffee which was out-of-this-world good. Mark then helped me at the computer store and boom, I'm back in business, back in the present, back with the rest of the world. Damn, I'm internet dependent!
That was fast, brief, but hey...I'm caught up. Which is good and also keep sounding more and more like a teacher. Still not sure how I'm doing this, but some people had almost all the multiple choice right so I've done something right! Though one student had 5 wrong. But I'll work on it and they'll work on it, or at least that's the plan. Still hard to believe I'm in China and this is my life. Perhaps I need to slow down and breath a little. The Chengdu way.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
A brief history of facing the unknown
Let me preface this entry by stating that I’m listening to Ingrid Michelson’s “Mountain and the Sea”, which, as some of you know, always makes me happy/hopeful. Let me also preface that unlike earlier in the week, when this would have been coping behavior, this is, instead classified under furthering the good behavior. Let me also preface this by saying it was written over a few days and is more a history of how I got to be here (so yes, it’s a rant.) This would also be a good time to correct an earlier entry where I referred to myself as “baby-boo”. In times of great stress I refer to myself as “buddy-boo”, which calms me down (explained in previous blogpost where I wrote the wrong phrase over and over). Anyways…moving on. Back to Ingrid, back to the present.
Furthering the good behavior can be defined as using coping behavior when one is already in a better mood and thus, makes one feel even better. The result is a semi-meditative calm state: a sensation of one-ness with self and world. Part of me is confident that this sensation is the aim of all who practice meditation, though with the understanding that monks are able to keep this calm sense through the good, the bad, and the unknown.
The unknown—humans are often afraid of what they don’t know. It’s why we hang with the same people, it’s why we eat the same things, it’s why we think the same thoughts. In fact, it’s probably why a lot of people don’t live abroad. Because living abroad is different. But I’m unknown. I’m in that wonderfully terrifying moment in life when all that was suppose to and expected to happen has: I’m finished with school. That is the one thing that I was really raised to believe I’d do. Sure I suppose there were mentions of a career and family, but education, being the most known at a young age where love and financial responsibility seem further away than the moon, was the only one understood. Being unknown to myself in an unknown time of life means that I’ll be facing the unknown wherever I am. But how did get to this place of comfort with the unknown? Or the different? Or the foreign?
College was, without a doubt, my hardest life experience (until the present!). Every semester I wanted to drop out as I spent hours working while life seemed to be happening to everyone else. Then something awesome happened, my jaw was surgically broken. Days after the surgery found me on my kitchen floor asking my mother to shoot me. I was having, shall we say, a bit of trouble coping. I was scared because this was a very very different experience than the norm. The experience wasn’t what I wanted it to be, but it was what I needed; a cliché of life. From it, I gained a small bit of insight into the world of my brother. Though that was helpful, more helpful still was a 90-mile bike ride to Wisconsin with a good friend. Although running was not advised, biking was allowed during my recovery. I invested into my bike, and eventually took that 90-mile ride. Before that, the longest ride I had been on was 35 miles, the week prior with another friend. So what happened that summer? How could I go from cowering on the kitchen floor to a 90-mile bike ride? I learned I could handle some pain, I learned I could handle the new and unexpected, I learned that I could push myself, essentially…I learned I had the potential to be awesome.
No, this isn’t narcissism; it’s confidence of self. The feeling of awesome is something anyone can achieve and doesn’t depend on a feeling of superiority as false self-confidence or narcissism requires. That summer I went on the bike ride, something that I had never thought I could do or would do, and succeeded. If I could do that, what else could I do? If I was able to withstand pain (and stop being a baby), handle new very different experiences (without fear), and push myself (developing some sense of self-control), what couldn’t I do?
A shift happened in that summer and my confidence in myself soared. Suddenly I was interested in developing a personal style and the first thing to change was my name: John. I honestly don’t remember what prompted the switch other than at that moment being called Johnny felt right. It had maybe always felt right, but I was not sure what people would think about me trying to switch my first name. But when I started calling myself Johnny that summer, I didn’t care too much what other people would think. I knew that I, like everyone, had a potential to feel good and be awesome and if I felt a step closer to awesome by adding ‘ny’ to my name, then why not.
I returned to Vassar attempting to live life out loud. I still worked hard (especially for our big campus event organizer) but I relaxed a bit more in my social life and made memories that are interesting to me, and thus, felt like I had a bit of a life. I took only four classes, instead of my usual five, and enjoyed dinner with friends daily. Just when I started making deeper friendships at Vassar, winter break approached and I began packing for my life abroad in New Zealand.
My New Zealand experience furthered the good. I went in feeling good and felt even better most of the time I was there. For starters, no one called me John as everyone I met was new. And because no one knew any of my old habits, I was free. Free to explore my life and lifestyle. Free to hitchhike alone for two weeks all around the South Island and explore myself. I returned from my two-week journey ready to change even more. A haircut from a friend started a new hairstyle that made me happy. Skinny jeans and plaid shirts made me feel happy. It wasn’t the materialism, or maybe it was, but what made the difference was I felt good in my clothes. If others noticed and commented, I was thankful, but I felt better even alone with my new style. In fact, I got better at enjoying my own company when alone. One day I caught my reflection in the mirror and had a “who is that?” moment. Who had I become? And sadly, what would everyone think back at Vassar?
And there it was, that same stupid question: what will other think? Luckily I returned from New Zealand, spent just five days home, and then drove myself to upstate New York where I worked on an organic farm. While there, the same internal confidence returned. I felt good. I liked my job, and enjoyed the company of the family I lived with. When I returned home, I wondered why I had never done something like that before during the summer—something that I was really proud of doing and fully enjoyed.
But summer came to an end and I found myself back at Vassar for a very difficult senior year. I could barely bring myself to do my work, now that I had tasted the world. I enjoyed lectures and readings, but labored over writing essays, something done weekly in psychology seminars. Through the support of housemates, I was able to push through and finish. Though I dreamed of running away to far off places while finishing. A trip to visit my brother over spring break to Death Valley and Las Vegas was enough to break me back into that good feeling. With that burst of good, I was able to decide that what I wanted to do most after graduation was work back on the farm. I did apply to one job in China but quickly forgot about it when I heard nothing back.
I crossed a stage, grabbed a piece of paper, and unwrapped a package to find overalls from dear Mom and Dad, who support me even when not sure of what I’m trying to accomplish. I packed at home and moved to upstate New York and returned to the farm, my farm. It was the right decision. I was happy—dirty, but very happy. I planted crops. I watered greenhouses. I harvested. I spun maple cotton candy and served up maple snow cones at farmers’ markets. I slaughtered chickens. I collected eggs. I worked the farm store. I cooked in the kitchen. I played with dogs. But at the height of our season, Hurricane Irene rolled in.
Water found its way through all our hard work and took it all away in twelve hours. A whole summer’s work gone in just twelve hours. The towns were damaged. Bridges gone. Homes swept away. Suddenly work became cleaning up. We had the task of trying to pick up the pieces. My boss had the task of trying to figure out what to do with the pieces. Somehow, and I’ll never fully understand how, he found the energy to smile…everyday. Maybe the support of his husband, maybe the support of his workers, maybe some internal drive to keep pushing forward, but he smiled while tired. Smiled while discovering more and more damage. Smiled through the worst disaster in years. And that was when I left the farm. Not how I wanted to go at all. Not like this, not with the farm in such a state. But it was time to leave. Seeing my boss’s strength assured me things would be fine without me around.
It was a sunny, beautiful blue-sky day when Bill, a co-worker, and I moved pumpkins to the store; my last day. When I started I said to myself that I wanted to get to pumpkin season and that I did. As anyone who has ever been to the Adirondacks knows, it is a really difficult place to leave. But that job that I applied for, and forgot about, came knocking with the opportunity to be in China. I was hesitant to open the door, but was encouraged by co-workers, customers, and, eventually, myself, to give it a shot. “What could I loose? It’s just a year.” And with that I got some shots, scanned a contract at the school in town where I bribed teachers with freshly baked Rivermede cookies for their help, packed, and drove out of the High Peaks, just like that.
And I cried. Not sobbed, mind you, but yes, there were some tears shed. Perhaps my body didn’t understand why my mind wanted to go from such a beautiful place. I was happy there and as I left I was not sure how long it would be until I could return. I also cried when I left New Zealand. Actually, maybe even sobbed. My male gender role is getting in the way of my memory, or rather the telling of the story at present. I loved being in New Zealand just as I loved being in the ‘Dacks. What made both of those experiences so good was the crying. The crying at the end was the realization of how good things had been; of how much I had invested. But I didn’t look back, I couldn’t look back. I didn’t have enough time to look back. Life moves on.
Home again and this time packing for a year. On October 1st, I was dropped off at the airport by those same supportive parents. I texted friends and waited for that delayed plane. Everything had happened so fast and all of a sudden there I was on a plane to China. Halfway through the flight I realized that I’d made a horrible mistake and wanted to turn around. Three-quarters of the way through the flight I realized that maybe that was just fear talking. When we touched down, I was too tired to be afraid or want anything from life other than a place to sleep.
My point of this rant: I learned when I was twenty that I was capable of much more than I ever thought I would be. Going to New Zealand reinforced this by learning I could navigate a country alone hitchhiking or with friends. Farming for a summer in Upstate New York showed me that I could make my own plans, as going abroad is pretty much buying someone else’s plan. And now, now I’m China. I keep wondering who I’m going to grow into while here. I wonder who is going to leave China? Will it be someone who went too far from home and runs home? Or, will it be someone who has embraced life in new ways?
This is the hardest thing I have done. I get frustrated daily when wanting to talk to the people around me but can’t. I get frustrated with how much I depend on Sarah and Simon, the two workers assigned to help us figure out life and work in China. The most frustrating, though, is that this is my plan, where I got a contract signed and I got over here and I’m doing this and I’m independent and blah blah blah, BUT I am more dependent than ever!!!
Perhaps, part of becoming independent is learning to trust others. Perhaps its not the man who is alone that is the strongest. Perhaps, part of being independent is being able to depend.
So this is how I was able to say yes to China. Because I’m looking for something, something I know to be in myself. Something that I first noticed when twenty. Something that I’m confident will be found will here. Something that makes me strong, loving, and fearless when face-to-face with the unknown.
And let’s face it: there’s a lot more unknown than known in life.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Bugs Suck
Let me preface this entry with today was not at all bad. I cleaned out the teacher's desk I inherited, was greeted warmly with students with questions when I arrived, and class was fine. Also, tomorrow the weather looks good, which means...field day for the kids. I don't fully understand but if it's not rainy in the next two days, we don't teach and they compete in games(???). I've been asked by some of the senior 2 students (juniors) to be at the opening ceremony. Though I'm pretty sure I was just asked because the two girls have a crush on me, which as we talked about in the staff meeting is not okay. So hopefully, I won't teach tomorrow and will be able to register my apartment at the police station and figure out my apartment.
Class was good. They just checked in about their essay topic and when they will be absent. Because the TOEFL and SAT are so important, the kids take off weeks to study for them. I insist that my class, which is in English and teaching reasoning skills will be much better preparation but apparently I'm fighting years (thousands) of Chinese culture. They believe anything can be memorized it seems. What stinks is that the books aren't here for the kids, so some are leaving tonight and won't be back for a week or two and can't do their readings! Argh! Dipont has strange goals for the kids. My goal is to get them ready to handle the rigor of college. I've got my work cut out for me.
So after class I went to that great dumpling place in She-poo with Jessie as I thought I had to watch night study, but I got a call that it was actually Thursday night. I was planning to see the new mattress right after class and if good, move in, so I was a bit upset at Dipont's lack of organization about having me stay in the area when I could've gone home. Dinner was delicious and Jessie, who speaks Chinese fluently, even helped me pick out some medicine for my silly intestines that are so confused. Only 16 RMB (so like $2). Wow. There was also Chines medicine that looked so interesting that I wanted to try, but then decided to listen to my intestines and not complicate things further.
After getting the call from Tina about evening study, walking all the way home a bit irritated, and grabbing my apartment key, I returned to Gregory's. He wanted to see my apartment and check it, the kind fatherly-figure of a guy he is, and I welcomed his company. He helped me carry the things Lynette and I purchased at Walmart a few days prior. We arrived, all looked good and then I went to inspect the mattress. New mattress with stains (so NOT a new mattress) and, of course, some bugs. This isn't funny. This isn't acceptable. This is becoming exhausting. I just want to unpack my suitcase and do laundry in my space. How hard is it to find a mattress in China that is bug-free? I mean come on, the 2nd "new" mattress? I was ticked, my insides were unhappy, and as Donkey put in best in Shrek, "I need a hug."
But that's not true. No, the mattress part is true, the hug part I mean. I didn't need a hug, what I needed was bug bombs. Cue Mark's entrance. Gregory, Mark, and I walked to my building fully armed. Once inside we opened all the cabinets and everything. The bugs were inside the plastic and on top of the mattress (before they had just been inside), so we opened the plastic and stood the mattress up. Then, we set off the bombs. Oh yes, Mark brought RAID BUG BOMBS from the US and let me us two of them. The best part, other than sitting here knowing that bugs are dying in my apartment, is that Mark helped, and Gregory helped. People helped me. Sarah has not been very helpful, though it's her job to do so. She always complains she's busy when I need things from her. I mentioned when I called her that usually (and in my contract) employees live in a hotel until Dipont finds an apartment. I'm not, I agreed to live with Gregory. She asked me if I wanted a hotel, I said no. What I want is my apartment without bugs (this happened before I called Mark). Dipont has me with Gregory so they don't seem to be in a rush to help me without the pressure of the hotel expense. I told Sarah that I would need to speak to Lily tomorrow if we can't resolve this. Then Sarah started listening. It was frustrating.
Gregory said it's my tone. I don't get upset. I don't demand things. I'm too nice. Well, I don't like being upset and I don't like demanding things and...I like being nice. But in this culture, if you don't raise your voice, then nothing gets done. It's weird and difficult for me. I may come home really being able to assert myself, instead of waiting until I'm too upset to function well. That would be a good thing to learn. I just don't like imposing on others. I never have. But I need to learn that I have a right to ask my company to provide me with what they said they would. It shouldn't be an imposition; it's housing, which I require if I am to work, but I'm still bad at asking for what I want.
The worst part of today was that it started out partly sunny and I even saw blue sky AND then all this happened and the clouds came back. I was in the best mood I'd been and took out my camera and started taking pictures in the morning and then just lost my motivation for everything when I saw the bugs. Hopefully the raid will kill everything. Hopefully I won't have to teach tomorrow (though I still have evening study, which is honestly BS and I may not go if my apartment is not all straight--assert myself or something).
BUT...to put things in perspective, Mark's building had some robberies two nights ago. Someone climbed to the 16th floor from the OUTSIDE and then climbed down checking every window and hitting 4 apartments, including Tom's. Tom is a teacher at a different school who lost laptops and pretty much everything. The worst part? They were home sleeping. One of his twin boys saw a light and Tom is thankful that he didn't go investigate. In China, never ever ever confront the perp. They often attack you instead of fleeing. Last night, there were more robberies, though the 3 involved were caught...a different 3 from the other night. I offered Tom my condolences and a meal (haha, I don't even have a place to live yet) and gave him my number. He says his wife and him are pretty rattled...I bet. If ninjas sneak into my apartment, I'll freak. And I will do my best not to engage them. Listening to him I realized things could be worse. Things can always be worse. But hopefully things will get better.
Ninjas Thieves, Bugs in Bed, and Unhappy Intestines. What a country, eh? And now I'm laughing. Laughing at myself for willingly coming here and laughing at myself to keep me sane (or maybe not as sane as I'm now laughing to myself alone...hahaha).
Oh China, you....you big country you!
Class was good. They just checked in about their essay topic and when they will be absent. Because the TOEFL and SAT are so important, the kids take off weeks to study for them. I insist that my class, which is in English and teaching reasoning skills will be much better preparation but apparently I'm fighting years (thousands) of Chinese culture. They believe anything can be memorized it seems. What stinks is that the books aren't here for the kids, so some are leaving tonight and won't be back for a week or two and can't do their readings! Argh! Dipont has strange goals for the kids. My goal is to get them ready to handle the rigor of college. I've got my work cut out for me.
So after class I went to that great dumpling place in She-poo with Jessie as I thought I had to watch night study, but I got a call that it was actually Thursday night. I was planning to see the new mattress right after class and if good, move in, so I was a bit upset at Dipont's lack of organization about having me stay in the area when I could've gone home. Dinner was delicious and Jessie, who speaks Chinese fluently, even helped me pick out some medicine for my silly intestines that are so confused. Only 16 RMB (so like $2). Wow. There was also Chines medicine that looked so interesting that I wanted to try, but then decided to listen to my intestines and not complicate things further.
After getting the call from Tina about evening study, walking all the way home a bit irritated, and grabbing my apartment key, I returned to Gregory's. He wanted to see my apartment and check it, the kind fatherly-figure of a guy he is, and I welcomed his company. He helped me carry the things Lynette and I purchased at Walmart a few days prior. We arrived, all looked good and then I went to inspect the mattress. New mattress with stains (so NOT a new mattress) and, of course, some bugs. This isn't funny. This isn't acceptable. This is becoming exhausting. I just want to unpack my suitcase and do laundry in my space. How hard is it to find a mattress in China that is bug-free? I mean come on, the 2nd "new" mattress? I was ticked, my insides were unhappy, and as Donkey put in best in Shrek, "I need a hug."
But that's not true. No, the mattress part is true, the hug part I mean. I didn't need a hug, what I needed was bug bombs. Cue Mark's entrance. Gregory, Mark, and I walked to my building fully armed. Once inside we opened all the cabinets and everything. The bugs were inside the plastic and on top of the mattress (before they had just been inside), so we opened the plastic and stood the mattress up. Then, we set off the bombs. Oh yes, Mark brought RAID BUG BOMBS from the US and let me us two of them. The best part, other than sitting here knowing that bugs are dying in my apartment, is that Mark helped, and Gregory helped. People helped me. Sarah has not been very helpful, though it's her job to do so. She always complains she's busy when I need things from her. I mentioned when I called her that usually (and in my contract) employees live in a hotel until Dipont finds an apartment. I'm not, I agreed to live with Gregory. She asked me if I wanted a hotel, I said no. What I want is my apartment without bugs (this happened before I called Mark). Dipont has me with Gregory so they don't seem to be in a rush to help me without the pressure of the hotel expense. I told Sarah that I would need to speak to Lily tomorrow if we can't resolve this. Then Sarah started listening. It was frustrating.
Gregory said it's my tone. I don't get upset. I don't demand things. I'm too nice. Well, I don't like being upset and I don't like demanding things and...I like being nice. But in this culture, if you don't raise your voice, then nothing gets done. It's weird and difficult for me. I may come home really being able to assert myself, instead of waiting until I'm too upset to function well. That would be a good thing to learn. I just don't like imposing on others. I never have. But I need to learn that I have a right to ask my company to provide me with what they said they would. It shouldn't be an imposition; it's housing, which I require if I am to work, but I'm still bad at asking for what I want.
The worst part of today was that it started out partly sunny and I even saw blue sky AND then all this happened and the clouds came back. I was in the best mood I'd been and took out my camera and started taking pictures in the morning and then just lost my motivation for everything when I saw the bugs. Hopefully the raid will kill everything. Hopefully I won't have to teach tomorrow (though I still have evening study, which is honestly BS and I may not go if my apartment is not all straight--assert myself or something).
BUT...to put things in perspective, Mark's building had some robberies two nights ago. Someone climbed to the 16th floor from the OUTSIDE and then climbed down checking every window and hitting 4 apartments, including Tom's. Tom is a teacher at a different school who lost laptops and pretty much everything. The worst part? They were home sleeping. One of his twin boys saw a light and Tom is thankful that he didn't go investigate. In China, never ever ever confront the perp. They often attack you instead of fleeing. Last night, there were more robberies, though the 3 involved were caught...a different 3 from the other night. I offered Tom my condolences and a meal (haha, I don't even have a place to live yet) and gave him my number. He says his wife and him are pretty rattled...I bet. If ninjas sneak into my apartment, I'll freak. And I will do my best not to engage them. Listening to him I realized things could be worse. Things can always be worse. But hopefully things will get better.
Ninjas Thieves, Bugs in Bed, and Unhappy Intestines. What a country, eh? And now I'm laughing. Laughing at myself for willingly coming here and laughing at myself to keep me sane (or maybe not as sane as I'm now laughing to myself alone...hahaha).
Oh China, you....you big country you!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Homeless
Okay, not that dramatic, but a catchy title. Plus this blog should be dramatic. It's far funnier for you and it keeps me laughing, which is necessary here. I must confess there are many times when I talk to myself to keep me smiling. This is going so sound silly, well really silly, but I was just reminded by a friend (Stephanie) about uh...my pet name for myself. Horribly embarrassing, so blog-gold right? For whatever reason when the going gets tough, like really tough, like after the tough have already gone and I'm left there alone, I call myself...buddy-boo. I don't know why. Maybe because hearing it makes me smile, because it's silly, maybe because it simulates a parent-child relationship with myself looking out for...myself. I'm not sure how this developed, but it is a surprisingly effective coping mechanism. Like when I'm super-excited about my new apartment that I'm practically skipping while hauling too much stuff from Walmart and then I find bed-like bugs in my mattress and refuse to move in, "buddy-boo...it's gonna be fine. It will all work out". Or after multiple trips to the bathroom almost every day of eating here, "buddy-boo...relax. You'll adjust." Or when I learn about what Dipont is really about (college acceptance versus education) and wonder why I'm here if all anyone cares about is the SAT, "buddy-boo. it's gonna get better." It's stupid. It's patronizing. But, it works. It's better than taking a deep breath. After speaking it aloud (cuz it must be spoken) I smile, every time!
'Buddy-boo' is like a band-aid really, it feels good just seeing it there before the situation improves. If I can learn to catch myself every time I fall, then I really will be able to do so much in this life. I feel most people fail at a dream or goal because they stumble and fall so much on the way that they give up. Being in China will hopefully teach me even more coping skills. Again and again I realize that this really will be the hardest thing I've done; that realization is another coping skill. "Challenge accepted" and boom; I'm pumped up for the day.
So yes, things haven't been the best. Although, with Sarah's help, we negotiated rent down and got me a new mattress, the mattress had what looked like bed bugs. I noticed this on closer inspection and have asked for a new one. When the housing realtor tried to tell me they were ants, I was not impressed. If they are two-section or one-section ants, then that's great but I'm still not sleeping here. Not taking that risk. So then he opened the plastic wrap and I left the room, frustrated with my lack of Chinese language skills. I haven't been back and I'm hoping like mad they are all staying on the mattress--a new one is supposed to come tomorrow. This all happened yesterday. I can't wait to move in, as long as the new mattress seems better. I want fridge space, I want storage space. I don't want to keep feeling homeless or rather baseless. I need my base. It's like the best coping technique. Keeping some space for oneself that is safe, clean, and has food. I did calm down and returned to Gregory's, but I really want to unpack my suitcase. Like now. Amazing how fed up I am, but I think understandable.
Teaching is also upsetting because I'm dealing with the apartment drama and not planning lessons. Hard to teach when you're securing your residence! But today was good, I think. I called attendance after a great discussion on culture and language and thinking. I was impressed with their thoughts and although they seemed at first to think it was beneath them, I think they eventually realized they might be learning something new. Then I gave them a quiz. They freaked! After I gave it out, I did tell them it wouldn't be graded. I just wanted to know what they picked up on from my lesson on Sunday--not much it turns out. In fact they called it the hardest quiz. Really I thought it was simple, but they aren't use to free response psych questions. No word bank or nothing! But it's AP and the questions were similar to ones I received while taking AP Psych, granted these kids are not natural English speakers. So after the break we discussed the quiz, I went on another rank about American schools and honesty and such. Then I reminded them about the essay topic that's due tomorrow. I spent the remainder learning about their schedule and life and I think they are starting to realize I care about them. After class, 6 students came up to me and none of their questions were about class. They wanted to know things about college and they wanted advice. I was thrilled! Also George came up to in the break as he left the room when class started and I told him to see me after class...where did that come from? It feels so natural some of the time. I just explained that he needed to ask permission when he was leaving my classroom. I hate disciplining though, the kids get so nervous, but I know it's better than loosing control of the classroom.
But I filled up 80mins AND got the kids to trust me more about helping them with college. Success? I think so, getting into my apartment would make me so much happier though.
After work Cynthia showed me where I can get great Chow Fein (fried rice) and a great market. Great food featuring quail eggs and mystery meat that you self-select. You pick your ingredients, they make fried rice...just like FlatTop, except perhaps more authentic and by that I mean, less sanitary. On the food note, lunch with Jesse, Charles, and Gregory was delicious, same place that John and Jesse took me too, but somehow better this time. Back to Cynthia, we got better acquainted and walked home after dinner. My new place is in her building so hopefully we can hang out plenty. She, like the other teachers, is quick to help me and advise me. I appreciate all their help. We even had a staff meeting today. Between the staff meeting, the shirt and tie I wore for picture day, and my new desk, I'm starting to feel like a real person...nooooooooooooooooooo! But maybe not so bad. Though do I really want to be a teacher? We'll see.
Oh and another coping mechanism is Netflix, though I'm still on free trial until I can see what my internet will be like. At Gregory's I can watch a movie almost 5 mins at a time. But it's better than nothing, right buddy-boo? right, strange patronizing self.
'Buddy-boo' is like a band-aid really, it feels good just seeing it there before the situation improves. If I can learn to catch myself every time I fall, then I really will be able to do so much in this life. I feel most people fail at a dream or goal because they stumble and fall so much on the way that they give up. Being in China will hopefully teach me even more coping skills. Again and again I realize that this really will be the hardest thing I've done; that realization is another coping skill. "Challenge accepted" and boom; I'm pumped up for the day.
So yes, things haven't been the best. Although, with Sarah's help, we negotiated rent down and got me a new mattress, the mattress had what looked like bed bugs. I noticed this on closer inspection and have asked for a new one. When the housing realtor tried to tell me they were ants, I was not impressed. If they are two-section or one-section ants, then that's great but I'm still not sleeping here. Not taking that risk. So then he opened the plastic wrap and I left the room, frustrated with my lack of Chinese language skills. I haven't been back and I'm hoping like mad they are all staying on the mattress--a new one is supposed to come tomorrow. This all happened yesterday. I can't wait to move in, as long as the new mattress seems better. I want fridge space, I want storage space. I don't want to keep feeling homeless or rather baseless. I need my base. It's like the best coping technique. Keeping some space for oneself that is safe, clean, and has food. I did calm down and returned to Gregory's, but I really want to unpack my suitcase. Like now. Amazing how fed up I am, but I think understandable.
Teaching is also upsetting because I'm dealing with the apartment drama and not planning lessons. Hard to teach when you're securing your residence! But today was good, I think. I called attendance after a great discussion on culture and language and thinking. I was impressed with their thoughts and although they seemed at first to think it was beneath them, I think they eventually realized they might be learning something new. Then I gave them a quiz. They freaked! After I gave it out, I did tell them it wouldn't be graded. I just wanted to know what they picked up on from my lesson on Sunday--not much it turns out. In fact they called it the hardest quiz. Really I thought it was simple, but they aren't use to free response psych questions. No word bank or nothing! But it's AP and the questions were similar to ones I received while taking AP Psych, granted these kids are not natural English speakers. So after the break we discussed the quiz, I went on another rank about American schools and honesty and such. Then I reminded them about the essay topic that's due tomorrow. I spent the remainder learning about their schedule and life and I think they are starting to realize I care about them. After class, 6 students came up to me and none of their questions were about class. They wanted to know things about college and they wanted advice. I was thrilled! Also George came up to in the break as he left the room when class started and I told him to see me after class...where did that come from? It feels so natural some of the time. I just explained that he needed to ask permission when he was leaving my classroom. I hate disciplining though, the kids get so nervous, but I know it's better than loosing control of the classroom.
But I filled up 80mins AND got the kids to trust me more about helping them with college. Success? I think so, getting into my apartment would make me so much happier though.
After work Cynthia showed me where I can get great Chow Fein (fried rice) and a great market. Great food featuring quail eggs and mystery meat that you self-select. You pick your ingredients, they make fried rice...just like FlatTop, except perhaps more authentic and by that I mean, less sanitary. On the food note, lunch with Jesse, Charles, and Gregory was delicious, same place that John and Jesse took me too, but somehow better this time. Back to Cynthia, we got better acquainted and walked home after dinner. My new place is in her building so hopefully we can hang out plenty. She, like the other teachers, is quick to help me and advise me. I appreciate all their help. We even had a staff meeting today. Between the staff meeting, the shirt and tie I wore for picture day, and my new desk, I'm starting to feel like a real person...nooooooooooooooooooo! But maybe not so bad. Though do I really want to be a teacher? We'll see.
Oh and another coping mechanism is Netflix, though I'm still on free trial until I can see what my internet will be like. At Gregory's I can watch a movie almost 5 mins at a time. But it's better than nothing, right buddy-boo? right, strange patronizing self.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Call Me Mr. Woj
Saturday arrived, as it often does after Friday. I met Sarah at the school along with some of the other teachers: Eugenia, John, Lyon, and Jesse. Charles and Gregory were there as well. I finally met Lily Dai, the woman who hired me. Sarah and I escaped the school to open up a bank account, which means I can now be paid! Then we checked out my future apartment again. I wanted to inspect the shower’s pressure, temperature, and draining. All seemed to be in order, a new bed was scheduled to arrive Monday, and I was getting excited. My first ever apartment—in China! Who knew?
Sarah left for lunch leaving me Chinese-language-less. I had eyed pork buns earlier in the week in a 7/11 type store, went in, bought one, ate it, and bought a second. Delicious, but probably not the best thing for me to eat. I had returned to McDonald’s in the morning, as I was running late, and vowed that eating here would NOT become habit. I left 7/11 as I have now decided to call it and returned to school where I hummed and hawed until class time.
The bell rang. The bell rang again. Finally the bell rang the third time, which means class begins. And there I was… standing in front of 20ish students (almost ten were missing—out for some SAT reason or something). No matter how many first days of school one has, the first day of teaching is far scarier. Do I have enough material to fill the time? No, I did not. Will I be able to engage the students? Maybe, I think there’s hope. Will they talk in Chinese about me to each other? Yes, oh yes they will. Will they respect me? Not sure whether I have their respect or not. My introduction class, which was supposed to be laid back, covered my background and their background. I had them stand up to introduce and answer a few questions I wrote on the board. Then I talked a bit about the class and then I checked the time. I still had 20 minutes left of a 40-minute period. So I dismissed the formality of the class and walked around talking to students. This is going to be hard, the time things that is.
Finally the bell rang, which is usually what the students want, not the teacher, and I went out to dinner with Jesse and John. Jesse and John are the English department and boy does that ring true. We talked like I talked to people at Vassar about the world. It was nice to have a real conversation. Though eventually, the conversation turned to Chinese women, or rather, Chinese girls as all conversations with American men in China seem to do so. I learned more about Chinese maids and another bar where one can choose a girl and… The ‘…’ is not innuendo, but rather frustration with the amount of knowledge I’m accumulating about American men and Chinese women. The quote from Dazed And Confused about High School girls never getting older keeps playing in my head. So I focused on the good parts of our conversation. Dinner was alright (I know, I know, I need to improve my food). I walked back to Gregory’s and worked more seriously on class, making a syllabus and breaking down the year and topics to cover. Exhausted I headed for bed.
Sunday. The day of my first block class. Not having to go into work until class time, which was at 4:45 I spent the morning working more on the syllabus. I had an omlette for breakfast, far better than McDonald’s though I sadly headed to McDonald’s for lunch. I don’t want to eat there. I want to eat at Chinese places but I can point and grunt better with a McDonald’s menu. Finally at school, I needed to do a lot of lesson planning as the 80 mins of time was feeling like far too much for what I had. However, I needed to talk to Mark about my syllabus and a proper work load. He was nowhere to be found so I went to explore my classroom. I found a computer connected to power point, but it is all in Chinese. And then I saw Mary.
Mary was seated in the room and looked upset. Then, she dropped her head to her desk. Classic student I’m unhappy body language. So I approached. Mary looked up, surprised, but was willing to talk. She had just had her college counseling appointment with Hannah, Dipont’s college counselor, and was upset because her two safety schools are completely unappealing to her. She is worried about her SAT and TOEFL scores and fears she’ll end up in one of her safety schools. I left and returned with Fiske’s Guide to College 2012 and she beamed. We looked up her two schools and I also suggested she contact them to see if they have an honors program. They are only allowed to apply to schools that Dipont suggests as Dipont seems to care more about getting them into school than which school. Very different from US College Counseling, though I’m not sure they know that. Regardless, I will try my best to help these students and support them in ways that Dipont staff cannot. Working with Mary felt right.
I eventually sat down with Mark and we had a good conversation. He was impressed that I was able to breakdown the course into weeks without any teaching instruction or experience. I finally did something right, except for the fact that all of a sudden it was class time. My reading assignment was copied onto Chinese paper—not acceptable as it’s toilet paper-like and won’t fit into the students binders, so I decided not to hand it out and Simon and I are working on a solution. I did manage to copy my syllabus and essay assignment and make it to class on time. Good start. I asked five students to stand and introduce themselves again and answer my question about how their holiday was. Then we read the syllabus. Their English is not very good when reading aloud for students trying to have success in American schools next year! I asked them if they thought it was fair and they agreed. I stressed academic integrity as I have heard from Mark and the other teachers that the students often copy each other’s work—an offense that can get a student kicked out of American college. Then we read the essay assignment.
The essay assignment is the common ap essay. The reason I’m assigning it is two-fold. I want to know who these students are and get some insight into their lives and secondly, I want them to write their own college essay. Here’s the kicker of my situation. These students usually pay, or rather their parents pay, an organization to write the student’s personal essay. I was disgusted and, after learning some other things about Dipont, greatly questioned what I am doing in China. Eugenia, on of the other teachers, thinks I am naïve for trying to change the system, but I must try. She thought I could sell the essay idea to them as a tool to give the agency. I guess my conscience will rest a bit easier knowing the students are giving the agencies personal statements they, at least, wrote (but I’d rather see them do the whole thing). When I questioned the students about this, they tried to deny it. They were surprised that I already knew this from seven days in China. Honestly, I am more interested in their essays and ability to write in English, but nonetheless I will try to help them write for themselves.
After all of this, only 30 minutes or so had passed. So, I started teaching. I began with asking them about Aristotle. I discussed his challenge to Socrates and Plato about the belief of innate knowledge. I covered the psyches. Then Descartes. Cogito ergo sum, written on the board as in every philosophy/intro psych class. Then the mind-body problem, then Cartesian dualism, and then the bell rang. 1st period over and I’d covered maybe almost all of my material for the day. During the break I wrote the terms on the board from the first part of the lecture, as I noticed almost none of the students were taking notes. The students came back and I asked them again, about Aristotle. Then I asked them about Descartes, essentially we reviewed all I had just said and I was shocked and how little had sunk in. Crap! Teaching is hard. I learned it’s better to write on the board, especially because of their English skills. But these kids are used to blind memorization without consideration for what is being learned. Psychology can’t just be memorization; it’s a way of thinking. So I ploughed on and we started talking about different parts of psychology. I was following a power point I had made on my computer and then began to feel more like a teacher. I added many more angles of psychology, giving unplanned examples. I think all high school teachers should take improv classes. But I’m still concerned that none of it is sinking in. I am already dreading the first test and I’M THE TEACHER! Isn’t it supposed to be the opposite? I had no idea how much teachers care. Although, to be fair, I have had the pleasure of being taught by many caring teachers. Professor Trumbetta at Vassar cares immensely about her students. When I worked as her RA I saw firsthand the concern when a student makes a mistake on an exam—that’s teaching passion. And apparently, I have a little bit of it as well.
Somehow the class ended, oh that’s right, I left them out a little early as dinner was next and we had just talked about health psychology. I hope they learned something! I met up with Sarah and after a long wait I signed my lease and paid for the first 3 months. Thus I was late for Mike’s goodbye dinner, but just in time to go to Muse, one of Chengdu’s hottest clubs, according to Mike. I changed into more appropriate clothes, loosing the teaching threads, gobbled up some left overs from Lynette’s home cooking and taxied over with Mike, Shelley, and Helen. Shelly was Mike’s friend from the dumplings. Helen was very friendly and interested in Adele, hiking, exploring, and world travel. I couldn’t believe it! We exchanged numbers and I cannot wait to hang out and do something outdoors. Though Lynette told me the tragic news that Hannah has a boyfriend. No matter how much I say it, they don’t get it. I just want to have some friends. I’m 22, not 35+. I’m looking to settle down and I’m looking for a relationship. Chinese girls seem to date first and get to know each other later, not my style. But Hannah is not like the others, at least with pressuring me.
Muse was pretty awesome: crazy lights, performances, rising stages, and American music. Always surprised about the last one, the same beings true in NZ. The night was very fun and even a bit drunk, though they mix their liquors very weakly. Mike and I showed his friends what American shots look like, though few wanted to partake. And we danced. I danced. I danced like I hadn’t danced in a club since the beginning of the summer, which is true. Dancing is one of those things that if I stop and think about it feels very silly. While dancing however, I just focus on the music and respond to it and it just feels so natural. It was interesting to see that this new culture seems to like it just as much as Americans. I surprised Mike’s friends with my dancing skills, which really is one skill: the skill to look like an idiot, but in time with the music. I had a really good time, I signed a lease on an apartment, and I had taught my first double period. Things seemed pretty good.
Also, I should mention, I’ve met Cynthia another teacher. She is from NZ and thus I talk to her to talk, but also to hear that sweet sweet accent I’ve come to love and miss.
Last Friday Night
Friday morning found me at McDonald's eating sub-par fake eggs with Mark, the foreign teachers' principal. We chatted about Chinese food (not his favorite), our backgrounds, his goals, and, of course, work. We walked to school and all of a sudden Chinese pollution became a reality. My throat hurt and it felt like my nose was full of dust. I desperately wanted a mask, perhaps even an oxygen tank. Mark assured me that this was the worst he had seen it. After a quick tour of the 5th floor where the AP Program of the Chengdu Foreign Language(s) School is located, we walked back. The air quality felt better on the way back. Perhaps it's worse in the morning? Suppose I'll figure that one out.
Mark played football in college and has a passion for baking as well as gardening his own herbs and vegetables. Okay so my school didn't have a football team nor would I have played if they had, but the baking and farming hobbies I can relate to all too well. He is even thinking of trying to get a small oven. Since there are no ovens anywhere, I am confused as to what he means, but eager for him to figure this out. He also told me about a couple groceries that specialize in foreign goods. I suggested we do American breakfasts (not at McDonald's) with pancakes, as long as I can find some baking supplies. Maple syrup will be missed.
I started planning some more for class once back at Gregory's but was pulled away for lunch in She-poo. Okay that's definitely not how it's spelled, but that's what it sounds like which of course means it's a Chengdu suburb name I can remember. What a brain I have. And what was lunch you ask? Dumplings. Oh so delicious dumplings. Leak dumplings, pork dumplings, beef dumplings, and more. 70 of them for the five of us. Mike and Lynette took me and we met a friend of Mike's and her friend. I must have had 20 after swearing that I was not that hungry as my stomach was still trying to purchase a plane ticket to America. Eventually he'll learn that he really can't leave. Hopefully soon. Regardless, the mouth thought they out-of-this-world. They were served with a dipping sauce that had a kick to it. Freshly mashed garlic was a condiment to add to one's sauce. Any place that serves garlic as a condiment is a place for me. Lynette still thought something was missing and came back with some MSG—no joke. A little dish full of MSG crystals. After muttering something about hair falling out and what not, she added some to her portion of dipping sauce.
After lunch we drove through a night market...in day. At night, night markets in China are bustling places with vendors selling food, clothes, trinkets, and more. Oh and I suppose I should explain the word drove in the first sentence of this paragraph. Mark owns a motorbike. I wouldn't call it a motorcycle because it looks like a motorized scooter, but it accelerates like a bike. Mark sat in the middle with Lynette in front and me in the back. Surprisingly for me, we all fit fine and the bike was quite the rush. I underestimated its speed and realized quickly that this was how I was going to die--hurtling through traffic, going through red lights, and driving on sidewalks. But I didn't die. Surprised? Yeah me neither. Chinese traffic is actually not as crazy as it seems. Everyone drives defensively, there doesn't seem to be road range, so really, there isn't anyone from New England here. Which really does help the crazy traffic pattern. No one wants to get into a crash so people slow down for others to switch lanes should a car suddenly stop. It really felt even more like a dance, especially now that I've been involved. And somehow, and this still gets me, it felt safe. I was shocked, but still don't think I'll be buying my own scooter or bike. Just something in my head about bikes and ERs.
So we finally arrived back at Gregory's after questing and successfully finding green prescription contact lenses for Lynette. I wrote down some more ideas for class and then Mike and Lynette approached me with the evening plan. First massages, then a stop at a tea shop, then dinner, then kill time while Lynette has her yoga class, then more tea shop, then head over to Emma's, the girl I met while eating eel and frog, KTV or karaoke bar. But guys, I have my first day tomorrow. So naturally I went. I wasn't teaching until 3:45 but I did have to meet Sarah at 9:00.
The massage was something I promised my back everyday of farming. For 30mins of massage, mostly concentrated on a strained shoulder, I paid 25RMB, so around 4 US dollars. Lynette had some strange Chinese practice of vacuuming out the bad with a glass jar. However, she opted for a more intense version that involved a bit of blood letting. So when my masseuse told Lynette that he would recommend the glass jars, I refused not understanding Lynette's was not the typical type. This was a Chinese massage meaning clothes are on and everyone is in the same room. Suddenly my anxiety about my first day at school was gone and my body started feeling better. In fact, I even had a "I'm in China" moment and was happy to hear myself say it.
So then I hoped on the bike, which I was getting better and better at mounting. We went to a tea chop where I ordered a silly tiramisu milk shake. Like NZ shakes, it's not a thick American milk shake. Dinner was actually not all that good; my first disappointing Chinese dinner. Mike had invited many of his friends, all girls of course, including two senior 3 students. When I heard that 2 of MY students would be coming to dinner I was not too happy. I felt this was unprofessional to hang out with them and that I was not dressed to be there teacher: brown faux-leather jacket, slim tan jeans, NZ t-shirt, and sun glasses (or wind glasses for biking). I mentioned to Mike that I was a little irritated so we decided we wouldn't tell the students. Which of course meant Mike made a bet of 500RMB with Snowy, one of the Senior 3 students (which is grade 12 in the US), that there would be a psychology teacher. After she agreed to the bet, he revealed my identity. I was again, not thrilled. Nor was my principal when I apologized the next day after informing him of what happened (I'd rather he heard it from me first).
Lynette was headed to yoga so Mike decided he wanted to visit his old stomping grounds and Snowy and Annie, the two students thought I should come to Sunday study to meet the others. After hearing that Mr. Wong, the Chinese principal for the Chinese teachers, would be there, I went. Mr. Wong hugged me upon me mentioning that I was the new AP Psychology teacher. He was happy to have a new subject, especially psychology. Then Elvis, one of the senior 2 students who I'd met at Gregory's, whisked me away into his classroom because the girls wanted to know who I was. I was a bit embarrassed and introduced myself. The Chinese teacher in the room, who doesn't speak English, probably did not know why this tall, red-bearded, leather-jacket American was in his room but seemed not to mind. I excused myself and returned to the safety of Mr. Wong's office…until he decided to parade me from room to room. We'd walk in, the students would gasp and all look at me, and then, after Mr. Wong said psychology and we explained what psychology was, they would clap. Then I would write my name on the board and they would struggle pronouncing my last name. We repeated this in a couple rooms.
The senior 3 students were far too cool to clap. There are 31 of them only, the non-AP program students are on a different campus. The students stay in the same room all day from 7ish to 10pm with breaks for lunch and dinner. Then, off to dorms where the electricity is shut off at 11. On weekends, they return home but this weekend we have class because of the holiday. I'm not sure the Chinese fully understand the word holiday; of course, nor do most Americans. Europeans seem to have the best understanding of the word. But in China they make up the time on holiday the weekend before and the weekend after. Seems backwards to come back from 5 days off and work 7.
Mike and I finally left the school after giving all the students the strangest impression of me. We grabbed Lynette from yoga and went back to the teashop before departing to Emma's KTV. I was exhausted at this point. The KTV was very high-end and clearly a front for older men to pay to spend some time with a waitress. It had the potential to be fun had I not been so tired. Bon Jovi's It's My Life did bring some energy back inside me, as did Maggie's voice. Maggie, another student at Lynette's university, can sing. She's got mad pipes in fact. Belting out Beyonce and Christina and more 90s ballads that I have never heard. Their American songs all seem to be from the 80s and 90s. Eventually I decided it was bedtime and Emma helped me get a 3-wheel taxi, thus an electric scooter with a little box for two passengers, home.
After being convinced that I was going to die when the driver pulled into a dark alley with dimly-lit people and speaking Chinese to me, a call to Emma discovered his battery ran out and he was getting a new one. Eventually I began to recognize the neighborhood and found myself home. Just in time to fall asleep.
I suppose if I’m gonna survive here I need to stop fearing for my life or alternatively, stop doing things that make me fear for my life. There’s a lot more trust in China, as there was in NZ, then there is in the states. It’s hard to get use to.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Finally found NOODLES!
Food.
Breakfast was American. A good cure for my now mostly Chinese diet. I find it helps keep Chinese food fresh and gives a boost of confidence to the stomach. Today started with omlette 2.0, and updated version from yesterday with cheese--which was a bit strange, but edible. Gregory's burners make a slightly browned omlette that holds together well. I think I'm in love with these Chinese burners. You may think this is an over-exaggeration but perhaps not when I mention the upcoming wedding of Johnny to Chinese burners. See, it wasn't just some silly foreign fling, it was a real connection. But I digress... These burners happen to be the same ones that are in my apartment, which makes me happy. Small victories.
After breakfast, my silly jet lag started lagging. I forced myself to fight it and began planning out my first lesson: What is Psychology? It was kinda fun--not that I finished. (Of course as I finished typing that sentence my principal just called, he's finally back in the country and can hopefully help me tomorrow). I heard from Gregory, Elvis (a Senior year 2 (junior)), and Mike (an ex-Chengdu teacher) that the students rarely, if ever, read what is assigned. Which may not be as crucial for math or science, but is more crucial for psychology. Unlike the other subjects, one cannot just memorize all of psychology's quick facts because there are essays on the AP Exam. The students are great at memorizing facts, but not in learning new concepts, so this could prove to be very tricky. The book I picked seems good and easy to follow. I went back-and-forth this morning with: what the hell am I doing here as a teacher, to oh this is gonna be so easy. Guess I'll find out Saturday.
Then lunch time came around. I had hoped to grab some noodles with Charles, but did not hear back from him so I headed out with Mike, the ex-Chengdu teacher, and his young Chinese girlfriend Lynette. I heard from Charles later that he was feeling a bit under the weather. All that sneezing was the start of allergies or a cold he thought. I offered to bring him anything, but said he was gonna try to go find something to eat.
Lynette had gone to pick up a friend, Emma, so Mike and I walked to meet them at a restaurant. I brought my camera in my messenger bag to look less touristy, but then felt weird taking pictures of the food with people I didn't know too well. Where did my confidence go? Whatever, I will eventually bust it out. Lynette and Emma had ordered and the food arrived right after we did. Fried jumbo shrimp served with fried corn landed on the table. After eating shrimp in bacon yesterday, I decided I could probably handle this too. The breading was more American, than Chinese. I'm not sure what that means...maybe blander? It was good, not such a shrimpy taste and the fried corn was wonderful: juicy corn within a crispy breaded crunch. The other two dishes looked spicy with loads of peppers and peppercorn (my stomach shudders as I type peppercorn).
(A new paragraph to do this justice.) The first of the two dishes was...eel. It actually arrived first on the table, but the shock value is worth the switch, no? Eel looks terrifying. It's brown, long, wide and reminded me of a tape worm with the head piece, which Mike said I should not eat. I took my time with some of the vegetables in the dish before I chopsticked an eel. It was probably 6 feet long or, actually, 5 inches. But it was a long 5 inches. I set it right into my mou---the bowl. Where I watched it, making sure it was dead. As I learned later at dinner, eels are placed on the cutting board (alive) and a knife slits them open, the insides tossed (or probably used in some other dish) and then the fleshy part is cooked. The eel looked dead (and clearly was) so I decided, hey, people must eat eel for a reason. (Though China is known for eating all pieces of animals due to lack of funds as much as for taste). I bit an inch or so off my eel and was pleasantly surprised. The texture was firmer than anticipated and the taste was heavenly. I don't think Lynette or Emma believed me that I liked it, so I ate another one later. Eel is flavorful (as is all Chinese cooking, at least in the Sichuan province) and good. Boy was I shocked. Then my attention turned to the 2nd dish put down.
Emma looked at me and smiled, "Do you know what this is?"
"No."
"Frog."
"Frog????"
"Frog. Try it, it's good. Be careful of the bones".
"Frog????"
I again went for the vegetables. In the frog stew was the same lime green vegetable that was in my first Chinese meal on my own, though Emma nor Lynette could not tell me what it was. Well, I thought, I've tried eel, how bad can it be? Just something about a frog made me more hesitant. But I found the frog piece in my rice bowl, and eventually I found sweet, delicious frog in my mouth. I couldn't believe it, I mean it was good, like really good with a texture that was superb. There were some tiny frog bones to place on my napkin, but my gosh was it good! However, as good as the eel and the frog were it is still hard for my eyes to eat them. That's really were the hesitation comes from, frog bites and eel slices do not look very appetizing. All throughout the spicy and delicious lunch, I was laughing at myself for failing to take it slow with the new food.
Emma just graduated from Sichuan University with a degree in English (like most of the graduates). Thus like most American English graduates, she works as a waitress. But unlike American English majors, she works in a Chinese karaoke bar. Where one can also ask for a girl. Not a prostitute, but you are allowed to touch(??), according to Mike. How is this okay? I wonder, forgetting that such things exist in the US as well. Mike likes Chinese girls, especially Lynette, and thus assumes that I must be crazy about Chinese girls as well. He and every Chinese girl I've met assumes I want to know how to get a Chinese girl. I assure them that I want to find friends first, but I'm not sure they believe me. Mike mentions how I could easily find a girl to live with me and do my laundry, cook, and clean up in front of the girls, even suggesting Emma. Granted I assume when Emma was a roommate of Mike's, Mike paid her share of the rent and thus, perhaps, more fair than it sounds, but it still struck me as an awkward arrangement. Not wanting to explain all my views on gender equality, I instead mention that I can cook for myself. Lynette smiles, and I switch the conversation to music before biting into the peppercorn from hell. Or the fires of Mt. Dune. Or maybe the red hot sun:
My celebration about all this new food was severely dampened by a mistaken bite into a Sichuan peppercorn. My mouth caught fire and then went numb. My gums felt strange and all of a sudden it dawned on me that I may not have only eaten something spicy, but my body might be slightly allergic. I'm not sure. My face flushed to the slight concern of Emma and all of a sudden I was exhausted and all my glee about new food was gone. I kept my composure and after a few minutes, my tongue, cheeks, and gums regained sensation. My lips were warm for maybe an hour or two after and the exhaustion eventually lifted. Hard to say how much was jet lag, anxiety, or the actual peppercorn. Regardless, I will not be making that mistake soon. My stomach was not very happy at the end of lunch, nor my mind. So I found myself at home, in my bed, in jet lag comma.
After catching up on news and Domino's, a friend from Vassar who is Auparing in Germany, blog, which is wonderful, I went back to the task at hand of lesson planning. Then Linda arrived. She was just promoted at her work in the US consulate. Though should I ever go there I can't mention I know her. She is 23 (Lynette being 22) so I have met some people my age. We headed out to dinner with Mike to get...NOODLES! Lynette ordered off the all-Chinese, no picture, menu and the noodles were delicious. Some sort of meat, garlic, onions, spices, MSG, soy sauce; the best really. Over dinner we talked about US vs. Chinese governments, Linda's desire to vote and search the web unrestricted, good clubs, good food including snake, snake eggs, deep fried scorpions, and more. Lynette and Mike were headed to a new club, but I felt I had to blog--no, not really. Mike seems to party very very hard and that didn't sound like a great idea with my body this week. Linda and I exchanged numbers, as I did with Emma. I now have four phone contacts of people who speak Chinese and English, the other two being Sarah from Dipont and Lynette. Linda said she wants to work on her English and I desperately want to speak Chinese--at least enough to order food and ask someone how they are and understand their answer...maybe directions too. I head back to Gregory's where gwy-gwy greets me.
A good day for new foods and new friends. And an okay day for lesson planning.
And maybe my "my gosh I'm in China moment" won't ever come. Or maybe I'm still in disbelief. Or maybe I'm worried about teaching and my job before I can take the mental energy to process this move. My money's on maybe I just need to see a panda.
Breakfast was American. A good cure for my now mostly Chinese diet. I find it helps keep Chinese food fresh and gives a boost of confidence to the stomach. Today started with omlette 2.0, and updated version from yesterday with cheese--which was a bit strange, but edible. Gregory's burners make a slightly browned omlette that holds together well. I think I'm in love with these Chinese burners. You may think this is an over-exaggeration but perhaps not when I mention the upcoming wedding of Johnny to Chinese burners. See, it wasn't just some silly foreign fling, it was a real connection. But I digress... These burners happen to be the same ones that are in my apartment, which makes me happy. Small victories.
After breakfast, my silly jet lag started lagging. I forced myself to fight it and began planning out my first lesson: What is Psychology? It was kinda fun--not that I finished. (Of course as I finished typing that sentence my principal just called, he's finally back in the country and can hopefully help me tomorrow). I heard from Gregory, Elvis (a Senior year 2 (junior)), and Mike (an ex-Chengdu teacher) that the students rarely, if ever, read what is assigned. Which may not be as crucial for math or science, but is more crucial for psychology. Unlike the other subjects, one cannot just memorize all of psychology's quick facts because there are essays on the AP Exam. The students are great at memorizing facts, but not in learning new concepts, so this could prove to be very tricky. The book I picked seems good and easy to follow. I went back-and-forth this morning with: what the hell am I doing here as a teacher, to oh this is gonna be so easy. Guess I'll find out Saturday.
Then lunch time came around. I had hoped to grab some noodles with Charles, but did not hear back from him so I headed out with Mike, the ex-Chengdu teacher, and his young Chinese girlfriend Lynette. I heard from Charles later that he was feeling a bit under the weather. All that sneezing was the start of allergies or a cold he thought. I offered to bring him anything, but said he was gonna try to go find something to eat.
Lynette had gone to pick up a friend, Emma, so Mike and I walked to meet them at a restaurant. I brought my camera in my messenger bag to look less touristy, but then felt weird taking pictures of the food with people I didn't know too well. Where did my confidence go? Whatever, I will eventually bust it out. Lynette and Emma had ordered and the food arrived right after we did. Fried jumbo shrimp served with fried corn landed on the table. After eating shrimp in bacon yesterday, I decided I could probably handle this too. The breading was more American, than Chinese. I'm not sure what that means...maybe blander? It was good, not such a shrimpy taste and the fried corn was wonderful: juicy corn within a crispy breaded crunch. The other two dishes looked spicy with loads of peppers and peppercorn (my stomach shudders as I type peppercorn).
(A new paragraph to do this justice.) The first of the two dishes was...eel. It actually arrived first on the table, but the shock value is worth the switch, no? Eel looks terrifying. It's brown, long, wide and reminded me of a tape worm with the head piece, which Mike said I should not eat. I took my time with some of the vegetables in the dish before I chopsticked an eel. It was probably 6 feet long or, actually, 5 inches. But it was a long 5 inches. I set it right into my mou---the bowl. Where I watched it, making sure it was dead. As I learned later at dinner, eels are placed on the cutting board (alive) and a knife slits them open, the insides tossed (or probably used in some other dish) and then the fleshy part is cooked. The eel looked dead (and clearly was) so I decided, hey, people must eat eel for a reason. (Though China is known for eating all pieces of animals due to lack of funds as much as for taste). I bit an inch or so off my eel and was pleasantly surprised. The texture was firmer than anticipated and the taste was heavenly. I don't think Lynette or Emma believed me that I liked it, so I ate another one later. Eel is flavorful (as is all Chinese cooking, at least in the Sichuan province) and good. Boy was I shocked. Then my attention turned to the 2nd dish put down.
Emma looked at me and smiled, "Do you know what this is?"
"No."
"Frog."
"Frog????"
"Frog. Try it, it's good. Be careful of the bones".
"Frog????"
I again went for the vegetables. In the frog stew was the same lime green vegetable that was in my first Chinese meal on my own, though Emma nor Lynette could not tell me what it was. Well, I thought, I've tried eel, how bad can it be? Just something about a frog made me more hesitant. But I found the frog piece in my rice bowl, and eventually I found sweet, delicious frog in my mouth. I couldn't believe it, I mean it was good, like really good with a texture that was superb. There were some tiny frog bones to place on my napkin, but my gosh was it good! However, as good as the eel and the frog were it is still hard for my eyes to eat them. That's really were the hesitation comes from, frog bites and eel slices do not look very appetizing. All throughout the spicy and delicious lunch, I was laughing at myself for failing to take it slow with the new food.
Emma just graduated from Sichuan University with a degree in English (like most of the graduates). Thus like most American English graduates, she works as a waitress. But unlike American English majors, she works in a Chinese karaoke bar. Where one can also ask for a girl. Not a prostitute, but you are allowed to touch(??), according to Mike. How is this okay? I wonder, forgetting that such things exist in the US as well. Mike likes Chinese girls, especially Lynette, and thus assumes that I must be crazy about Chinese girls as well. He and every Chinese girl I've met assumes I want to know how to get a Chinese girl. I assure them that I want to find friends first, but I'm not sure they believe me. Mike mentions how I could easily find a girl to live with me and do my laundry, cook, and clean up in front of the girls, even suggesting Emma. Granted I assume when Emma was a roommate of Mike's, Mike paid her share of the rent and thus, perhaps, more fair than it sounds, but it still struck me as an awkward arrangement. Not wanting to explain all my views on gender equality, I instead mention that I can cook for myself. Lynette smiles, and I switch the conversation to music before biting into the peppercorn from hell. Or the fires of Mt. Dune. Or maybe the red hot sun:
My celebration about all this new food was severely dampened by a mistaken bite into a Sichuan peppercorn. My mouth caught fire and then went numb. My gums felt strange and all of a sudden it dawned on me that I may not have only eaten something spicy, but my body might be slightly allergic. I'm not sure. My face flushed to the slight concern of Emma and all of a sudden I was exhausted and all my glee about new food was gone. I kept my composure and after a few minutes, my tongue, cheeks, and gums regained sensation. My lips were warm for maybe an hour or two after and the exhaustion eventually lifted. Hard to say how much was jet lag, anxiety, or the actual peppercorn. Regardless, I will not be making that mistake soon. My stomach was not very happy at the end of lunch, nor my mind. So I found myself at home, in my bed, in jet lag comma.
After catching up on news and Domino's, a friend from Vassar who is Auparing in Germany, blog, which is wonderful, I went back to the task at hand of lesson planning. Then Linda arrived. She was just promoted at her work in the US consulate. Though should I ever go there I can't mention I know her. She is 23 (Lynette being 22) so I have met some people my age. We headed out to dinner with Mike to get...NOODLES! Lynette ordered off the all-Chinese, no picture, menu and the noodles were delicious. Some sort of meat, garlic, onions, spices, MSG, soy sauce; the best really. Over dinner we talked about US vs. Chinese governments, Linda's desire to vote and search the web unrestricted, good clubs, good food including snake, snake eggs, deep fried scorpions, and more. Lynette and Mike were headed to a new club, but I felt I had to blog--no, not really. Mike seems to party very very hard and that didn't sound like a great idea with my body this week. Linda and I exchanged numbers, as I did with Emma. I now have four phone contacts of people who speak Chinese and English, the other two being Sarah from Dipont and Lynette. Linda said she wants to work on her English and I desperately want to speak Chinese--at least enough to order food and ask someone how they are and understand their answer...maybe directions too. I head back to Gregory's where gwy-gwy greets me.
A good day for new foods and new friends. And an okay day for lesson planning.
And maybe my "my gosh I'm in China moment" won't ever come. Or maybe I'm still in disbelief. Or maybe I'm worried about teaching and my job before I can take the mental energy to process this move. My money's on maybe I just need to see a panda.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
No Naptime
Food.
Gregory insisted on making me liver for lunch. Somehow I found myself on Bus #30 for downtown Chengdu with Charles instead. Charles is the AP World History and pre-AP econ teacher from Texas. He had mentioned yesterday afternoon that we (meaning all three) should grab a meal together. I'm am a proactive person when it comes to socializing so I texted him in the morning asking if he wanted to play tourist. We set off for Charles's favorite restaurant which happened to be the one I ate at with Sarah on Monday. We walked in and grabbed beer, which apparently one does before sitting down--or at least if that one is Charles. However, we were stopped from sitting down by many waving hands of waitresses. Apparently, or so we we guessed, the restaurant was reserved for a party.
I asked the waitresses in awkward gestures if there was another place to eat and she just looked at me blankly. I mean, I thought I was good at charades. In the end, it did not matter, as one waitress grabbed the two beers and beckoned us to follow her...down the street...past a few stores...underneath a gate...up a flight of stairs and into a bar-type room. She produced a menu and we assumed that this was where we could eat, and we were right! I ordered the dumpling dish and the spicy-beef(?) dish as Charles had yet to sample them and Charles ordered shrimp and cabbage.
I decided to be adventurous and look for a bathroom and this time my gestures were rewarded. I promise I don't usually blog about bathrooms, but this one was quite a shock. I opened a stall door to find a toilet flat on the floor, like part of the floor, like not really a toilet. There was a hole and a flush button, and it was white, but the 'seat' was grooved for shoes. My heart sank a little at the thought of ever needing to use this #2 style. There was toilet paper in this one, but the idea of squatting indoors was hard to stomach. I will try my best never to use such a toilet for such a purpose. As always, we'll see.
Back in the "restaurant" Charles and I got better acquainted. He has taught before under at least 4 principals. He's been to Korea in the '70s and it is his New Zealand. (I talk about New Zealand far too much, especially when reminded of it like I am when traveling). He is very American with his mannerisms and large gut, which really sticks out a lot to me being in skinny China. He does look the part of a teacher though, much more than I. Then the food began to arrive and our conversation gave way to flavor appreciation.
This was a feast to rival the first. I already felt better with chopsticks and my spicy tolerance though the Sichuan pepper that ended up in my mouth was a mistake. The beef was better than remembered, the dumplings seemed to be better seasoned, and the cabbage was delicious. The beer proved to be a nice pairing. The shrimp were scary, but only because I don't usually (if ever) eat them. However, these shrimp looked to be breaded, fried, and covered in sweet-looking sauce. So being the bold eater that I'm quickly becoming, I decided that this would be the end of not eating shrimp. I chopstick-ed one into my mouth and got a wonderful surprise. Underneath the breading was...bacon. Turns out if shrimp is wrapped in bacon, covered with batter, fried, and smothered in a tangy-sweet sauce, it's pretty irresistible. All my years of avoiding shrimp seemed to do this taste even more justice. I ended the meal a tad too full but after my scant eatings of the day prior, I was overdue for food. Charles treated me, which was nice of him but not necessary. The teachers all do make much more than I and seem to think that they should take me under their wing. I suppose I am the intern. I don't mind too much, especially as food is so cheap, but I'll have to pay him back somehow.
We ventured onwards, back on the bus, and found a park. It was beautiful and full of Chinese characters. An old man was practicing Tai Chi in the park to the tunes of a Chinese Erhu, the two-stringed fiddle that old Chinese Americans play in NYC subways and such. I could not locate the source of the music from where Charles and I were digesting (sitting), and it may have been recorded. Next to us was more modern music that an ederly couple decided was two-stepable. The man never showed a smile and was very good and not making eye contact with me during their thirty plus minutes of dancing the same steps, over and over. The woman, however, caught eyes with me and smiled. Her face was light up with glee. The two of them attracted a bit of attention, but Charles and I may have received more for being white. The park had a stillness--the kind from a deep yogi breath. Sitting at our bench brought me breathing deeper than I had since the mad rush to China. Charles, on the other hand, was sneezing over-and-over. Something got him started and he continued the whole day. Poor guy. But he was still willing to continue our adventure!
We left the park and got back on the bus and headed to Tifanu Square, the heart of Chengdu, where Chairman Mao ever-watches with a stiff-arm (or salute, one of the two). I did not bring a camera again. (I feel very exposed when walking around as I am quite the minority so it's hard to want to further label myself as foreign.) We wondered over to a museum, where Charles treated me again. Perhaps because he is old enough to be my father? I'm not sure, but I was grateful, especially because I was quickly learning that Charles needs to sit down frequently. Thus, we did not see much at all of the museum and I would have felt it a waste of money. The Science and Technology museum was full of gadgets, singing robots, and more, including a small tiny exhibit on green houses. Most exhibits were in Chinese, but some had translations, which was a pleasant surprise.
But we mostly sat. We sat on the 1st floor, on the 2nd, and finally on the 3rd. Then we left to find a seat...at Starbucks. Charles, who had mentioned many times that he has full, ordered a mocha and a slice of cake while we sat. I was understandably confused, but patient. Especially because I was sorta kinda maybe responsible for Charles' pace--I ordered far too much delicious food and both were stuffed! Thanks to him, I also now know how to navigate bus #30.
Charles is great company. He is willing to explore, willing to hang with someone far younger than he, and treats me like a fellow teacher, even with his understanding of my nonexistent teaching experience. Gregory, while a friendly host (especially now that I understand a bit more of how Russians treat guests: very well), does not have the same appetite to explore, perhaps because he has been here before. So I was grateful for Charles's company today.
We returned home and parted ways. Gregory was kind enough to leave my some liver on the stove. I graciously ate the portion while fighting my gag reflex with each bite. I tried to figure out why this reaction kept coming, but it's liver and it's slimy and it smells strange. Shrimp trumps liver, hands down. I guess I'll have to work on the liver part of my palette. Of course at the rate of rapid expansion I'm going, my palette might explode...tomorrow. I feel it's best to try to take things slow here on the food front for now,. Especially as I keep burping liver while writing.
A few notes from the day:
Chengdu is polluted. This was explained to me before I arrived. My first two days had decent weather. Today the fog or smog was thick, especially downtown. Charles says that 330 days of the year are cloudy as in full clouds, not partly-cloudy clouds. Perhaps the sunshine I saw yesterday should not have been wasted. Chengdu does rank up there in cities with the least sunshine. The water at the calm park smelled...like the Chicago river, so not great. But for all the talk about Chengdu being polluted it's not too bad, minus some smells. Trash is always being cleaned up, which makes for very clean streets and parks. But I will miss sunsets. The haze just gets darker and darker and then it's night. Of course this could be a blessing as pressure to train out of the city and see more of China. Though I'm afraid I'll need some more Chinese under my belt before I feel ready to do so.
Finally, Chengdu has Chinese traffic. Think NYC traffic. Then take out the bright yellow taxis and add in bicycles/motorbikes/scooter lanes. Then add thousands of buses and some cars. Then put in oddly colored taxis. Now add illegal bike-taxis (modern rickshaws) and you almost have the picture of Chengdu traffic. Don't forget to add in the state of the art lights with timers while green/red, which gives one a false sense of comfort. Finally, take out traffic rules. Have cars go the wrong way in streets. Put bikes in everywhere, regardless of the lanes. Have buses stuck in intersections while cars mill about. Have cars breakdown here and there, and then add pedestrians who walk like New Yorkers. Even on the bus ride home today, I had a few scares, certain we were going to kill pedestrians and that cars were going to drive right through us. But somehow, I only saw one minor accident: a bicyclist hit a car, no damage. So in all the chaos, there is somehow harmony. It begins to look more like a wild dance or a circus act. I must be cautions though. I'd like to leave this place with all body parts I entered with.
I suppose tomorrow I should really start thinking about my lesson plan. But the good news is I haven't napped! I've been up since 6:00, which doesn't make any sense. Since 6:00 am was my 5:00pm four days ago (five days ago? gah--I've already lost track). Meh.
Oh and, Happy Birthday to my brother.
Gregory insisted on making me liver for lunch. Somehow I found myself on Bus #30 for downtown Chengdu with Charles instead. Charles is the AP World History and pre-AP econ teacher from Texas. He had mentioned yesterday afternoon that we (meaning all three) should grab a meal together. I'm am a proactive person when it comes to socializing so I texted him in the morning asking if he wanted to play tourist. We set off for Charles's favorite restaurant which happened to be the one I ate at with Sarah on Monday. We walked in and grabbed beer, which apparently one does before sitting down--or at least if that one is Charles. However, we were stopped from sitting down by many waving hands of waitresses. Apparently, or so we we guessed, the restaurant was reserved for a party.
I asked the waitresses in awkward gestures if there was another place to eat and she just looked at me blankly. I mean, I thought I was good at charades. In the end, it did not matter, as one waitress grabbed the two beers and beckoned us to follow her...down the street...past a few stores...underneath a gate...up a flight of stairs and into a bar-type room. She produced a menu and we assumed that this was where we could eat, and we were right! I ordered the dumpling dish and the spicy-beef(?) dish as Charles had yet to sample them and Charles ordered shrimp and cabbage.
I decided to be adventurous and look for a bathroom and this time my gestures were rewarded. I promise I don't usually blog about bathrooms, but this one was quite a shock. I opened a stall door to find a toilet flat on the floor, like part of the floor, like not really a toilet. There was a hole and a flush button, and it was white, but the 'seat' was grooved for shoes. My heart sank a little at the thought of ever needing to use this #2 style. There was toilet paper in this one, but the idea of squatting indoors was hard to stomach. I will try my best never to use such a toilet for such a purpose. As always, we'll see.
Back in the "restaurant" Charles and I got better acquainted. He has taught before under at least 4 principals. He's been to Korea in the '70s and it is his New Zealand. (I talk about New Zealand far too much, especially when reminded of it like I am when traveling). He is very American with his mannerisms and large gut, which really sticks out a lot to me being in skinny China. He does look the part of a teacher though, much more than I. Then the food began to arrive and our conversation gave way to flavor appreciation.
This was a feast to rival the first. I already felt better with chopsticks and my spicy tolerance though the Sichuan pepper that ended up in my mouth was a mistake. The beef was better than remembered, the dumplings seemed to be better seasoned, and the cabbage was delicious. The beer proved to be a nice pairing. The shrimp were scary, but only because I don't usually (if ever) eat them. However, these shrimp looked to be breaded, fried, and covered in sweet-looking sauce. So being the bold eater that I'm quickly becoming, I decided that this would be the end of not eating shrimp. I chopstick-ed one into my mouth and got a wonderful surprise. Underneath the breading was...bacon. Turns out if shrimp is wrapped in bacon, covered with batter, fried, and smothered in a tangy-sweet sauce, it's pretty irresistible. All my years of avoiding shrimp seemed to do this taste even more justice. I ended the meal a tad too full but after my scant eatings of the day prior, I was overdue for food. Charles treated me, which was nice of him but not necessary. The teachers all do make much more than I and seem to think that they should take me under their wing. I suppose I am the intern. I don't mind too much, especially as food is so cheap, but I'll have to pay him back somehow.
We ventured onwards, back on the bus, and found a park. It was beautiful and full of Chinese characters. An old man was practicing Tai Chi in the park to the tunes of a Chinese Erhu, the two-stringed fiddle that old Chinese Americans play in NYC subways and such. I could not locate the source of the music from where Charles and I were digesting (sitting), and it may have been recorded. Next to us was more modern music that an ederly couple decided was two-stepable. The man never showed a smile and was very good and not making eye contact with me during their thirty plus minutes of dancing the same steps, over and over. The woman, however, caught eyes with me and smiled. Her face was light up with glee. The two of them attracted a bit of attention, but Charles and I may have received more for being white. The park had a stillness--the kind from a deep yogi breath. Sitting at our bench brought me breathing deeper than I had since the mad rush to China. Charles, on the other hand, was sneezing over-and-over. Something got him started and he continued the whole day. Poor guy. But he was still willing to continue our adventure!
We left the park and got back on the bus and headed to Tifanu Square, the heart of Chengdu, where Chairman Mao ever-watches with a stiff-arm (or salute, one of the two). I did not bring a camera again. (I feel very exposed when walking around as I am quite the minority so it's hard to want to further label myself as foreign.) We wondered over to a museum, where Charles treated me again. Perhaps because he is old enough to be my father? I'm not sure, but I was grateful, especially because I was quickly learning that Charles needs to sit down frequently. Thus, we did not see much at all of the museum and I would have felt it a waste of money. The Science and Technology museum was full of gadgets, singing robots, and more, including a small tiny exhibit on green houses. Most exhibits were in Chinese, but some had translations, which was a pleasant surprise.
But we mostly sat. We sat on the 1st floor, on the 2nd, and finally on the 3rd. Then we left to find a seat...at Starbucks. Charles, who had mentioned many times that he has full, ordered a mocha and a slice of cake while we sat. I was understandably confused, but patient. Especially because I was sorta kinda maybe responsible for Charles' pace--I ordered far too much delicious food and both were stuffed! Thanks to him, I also now know how to navigate bus #30.
Charles is great company. He is willing to explore, willing to hang with someone far younger than he, and treats me like a fellow teacher, even with his understanding of my nonexistent teaching experience. Gregory, while a friendly host (especially now that I understand a bit more of how Russians treat guests: very well), does not have the same appetite to explore, perhaps because he has been here before. So I was grateful for Charles's company today.
We returned home and parted ways. Gregory was kind enough to leave my some liver on the stove. I graciously ate the portion while fighting my gag reflex with each bite. I tried to figure out why this reaction kept coming, but it's liver and it's slimy and it smells strange. Shrimp trumps liver, hands down. I guess I'll have to work on the liver part of my palette. Of course at the rate of rapid expansion I'm going, my palette might explode...tomorrow. I feel it's best to try to take things slow here on the food front for now,. Especially as I keep burping liver while writing.
A few notes from the day:
Chengdu is polluted. This was explained to me before I arrived. My first two days had decent weather. Today the fog or smog was thick, especially downtown. Charles says that 330 days of the year are cloudy as in full clouds, not partly-cloudy clouds. Perhaps the sunshine I saw yesterday should not have been wasted. Chengdu does rank up there in cities with the least sunshine. The water at the calm park smelled...like the Chicago river, so not great. But for all the talk about Chengdu being polluted it's not too bad, minus some smells. Trash is always being cleaned up, which makes for very clean streets and parks. But I will miss sunsets. The haze just gets darker and darker and then it's night. Of course this could be a blessing as pressure to train out of the city and see more of China. Though I'm afraid I'll need some more Chinese under my belt before I feel ready to do so.
Finally, Chengdu has Chinese traffic. Think NYC traffic. Then take out the bright yellow taxis and add in bicycles/motorbikes/scooter lanes. Then add thousands of buses and some cars. Then put in oddly colored taxis. Now add illegal bike-taxis (modern rickshaws) and you almost have the picture of Chengdu traffic. Don't forget to add in the state of the art lights with timers while green/red, which gives one a false sense of comfort. Finally, take out traffic rules. Have cars go the wrong way in streets. Put bikes in everywhere, regardless of the lanes. Have buses stuck in intersections while cars mill about. Have cars breakdown here and there, and then add pedestrians who walk like New Yorkers. Even on the bus ride home today, I had a few scares, certain we were going to kill pedestrians and that cars were going to drive right through us. But somehow, I only saw one minor accident: a bicyclist hit a car, no damage. So in all the chaos, there is somehow harmony. It begins to look more like a wild dance or a circus act. I must be cautions though. I'd like to leave this place with all body parts I entered with.
I suppose tomorrow I should really start thinking about my lesson plan. But the good news is I haven't napped! I've been up since 6:00, which doesn't make any sense. Since 6:00 am was my 5:00pm four days ago (five days ago? gah--I've already lost track). Meh.
Oh and, Happy Birthday to my brother.
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