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.
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