This week has been Chinese New Year. The biggest days were the 2nd (new years eve) and the 3rd (new years day) but the celebration meter was on 11 for the vast majority of the week. The red lanterns were put up and the fireworks vendors assumed their positions on the streets. After a long weekend at work I walked out of there with 7 days off, now that's how to ring in a new year! That night a group of us went to a restaurant that specialized in Sichuan food, which is a province in China known for their spicy cuisine. At one time it I'm told that being able to tolerate Sichuan food was a sign of your masculinity. Anywho, its delicious, we all got about 6 or 7 dishes to share and a bunch of beers. We all so bought a bottle of Baijiu, which is a traditional Chinese liquor. Its ok I guess, I'm not a huge fan, it sort of has a black liquorish flavor to it. Boy does it do the job though! After the plates are empty and the bottle is kicked we decide to go to a KTV which is a karaoke joint. KTV's are extremely popular around here, there are literally streets that are just full of different KTVs. You walk in and negotiate with the employees what you want and they accommodate. Its not like karaoke that we are used to, You have your own room with a flat screen, your own bathroom, couches, games, and a karaoke computer. We talked the guy into letting us have the room for 3 hours with 15 beers for 200 yuan (30 USD). It was interesting actually, right when we walked into the place everyone came over to us and wanted to have their pictures taken with us. We even had someone knock on our door so she could have her picture taken with American Mike and me.
So we hung out in the KTV and sang some songs. I was surprised that they even had western songs on there but they had a few. I sang "Do you really want to hurt me" by culture club, "Sussudio" by Genesis and a few others. American Mike is a sucker for traditional christmas music for some reason and sang jingle bells and a few others. It was so funny I took a video of it, he was rockin jingle bells in early February. I guess you had to see it for yourself. After a few hours I was about karaoke'd out so I hit the road. Pretty fun way to start my holiday.
So it's now the 2nd, which is NYE and American Mike invites me to his place because his wife(Anna) is making dinner and she is a great cook. The streets of Jinzhou is a pretty amazing place during this time of the year. Fireworks everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. Ones that make our 4th of July look like we are a bunch of pansies. The best part is, you can buy top of the line fireworks on the freaking street corner! So that means everyone and their mother are setting off these huge fireworks at the same time! After a delicious dinner, a couple of friends come over to Mike's with some fireworks and I ask him how much he payed and when he told me, my jaw dropped. He bought an arms length 4 inch thick log of firecrackers for 20 yuan......3 USD. I said "ok lets go, take me to where you go them" . So, my friend (British Jon) and I hop in his scooter and find the nearest fireworks stand. We, find one and Jon (who is fluent in chinese) negotiates a pretty sweet deal for me. I spend 135 yuan ( 20USD) for my pile and they give it to me in a trash bag! These aren't little sparklers or fountains dear readers, these go boom. The Chinese do not mess around when it comes to their fireworks. We went back to Mike and Anna's and had some drinks and waited for midnight to come around. We went out to the patio of Mike's which gave us a pretty sweet view of the city from all angles. We set off our fireworks and had a good ol time. Once midnight hits the city explodes, the sky is totally lit up. Everywhere you look are fireworks, its intense. I took allot of videos. I ignored my pile of boombooms and just stared into the sky turning in a circle. It was amazing. Its very hard to describe. I cant imagine being in a bigger city with millions of more people in it. After midnight the fireworks slowed down a little but were far from being over, hell they still are and its 3 days later. I have been woken up every morning between 6 and 8 for the past week by someone setting off fireworks. If anyone has a bucket list I strongly recommend putting "experience a Chinese New Year" on that list. You wont regret it!
Friday, February 4, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
New stories including a trip the Bei of Jings.
My apologies for the current lag in my posts, I haven't really been "feeling" it although there have been things happen that I know I should write about. Let me try to remember them....
These happening aren't in any particular order, I'm just writing them as I remember them. It has been 3 months since Ive arrived here and it feels like Ive been here for four times that long. I have continued to take Chinese lessons and I've fallen into a routine at work. I've even had a very special lady visit me from the states. I will re-name her Molly because I don't know how she feels about me writing about her. Molly is very special to me, we have known each other since the 8th grade and got reacquainted while I was at home waiting to leave for China. She came to visit me and I took some much deserved time off of work. Talking with some friends here, they decided it would be good for us to take a trip to Beijing to see the sights and to just get out of Jinzhou for a bit. They(my friends) basically planned the entire trip for us: train tickets, hotel, tour guide, and all we had to do is show up at the right place at the right time. It was pretty sweet of them. I was told that in Beijing that you can find whatever western food you want, so that's what we did. We were going to be eating tons of Chinese food in Jinzhou so we went on a mission to find western food that we could find nowhere else but there. Beijing is huge by the way, 20 million people. We ate Indian food (still Asian I know but not Chinese), pasta, burgers, poutine (french fries with gravy, Canadian staple), and of course pizza. We went to a pizza hut which doesn't sound too fun does it? Well, here, Pizza Huts are a fancy sit down restaurant, its kinda weird in a good way.
Anywho, to the good stuff. My friends arraigned a tour service for us to see the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. The Ming Tombs are the grave sites for the emperors during the Ming dynasty. There are 13 of them but only 1 or 2 are open to the public. That place was really cool, there were a couple of temple style buildings and behind the last one was a huge mound that actually had the body/bodies in it. It hasn't been excavated yet. There was even a well area that was said to be dedicated to the concubines to the emperor. They said that the emperor had thousands of concubines and those who didn't bare him a son were sacrificed once the emperor died. They said there were hundreds.
After the Ming Tombs they took us to a jade carving facility where we tourists could spend some money if we felt like it or just look around. Some of the jade carvings there were amazing. I couldn't imagine the pressure a carver would be under. If they made a mistake, the project would be ruined and the jade wouldn't nearly be as valuable.
After that we had lunch then got back on the minibus to head to an area of the Great Wall. I don't remember exactly what section we were on but it was the highest section. Molly and I walked around for 2 hours and loved every second. It was amazing up there. You could see the wall meandering off the mountain sides in both directions. We allot of walking and there were allot of steps, some were extremely steep. At times the next step in front of you would be as high as your knees so you would have to hop up onto it. Before we got there the tour guide said "remember this was was made for the military, not for tourists." . It was a hell of a workout and the view was spectacular. Needless to say, we were spent by the end of the day. The even took us to a tea house where we got to try some amazing Chinese tea, made by people that really knew what they were doing. The didn't just teabag (hehe) some hot water and hand it over. There was even a kind if tea that looked like a ball about the size of a good size gumball. Once you put it into the hot water it would hydrate and an amazing flower would be floating in your tea. The flower was the tea. Pretty cool stuff. So after that it was time to end the tour and Molly and I were having out pizza craving. We asked the tour guides to drop us off and the closest pizza hut to our hotel. They obliged and dropped us off at this huge shopping mall and said that the Hut was inside. We ate some pizza at the fancy pizza hut and on our way out of the mall a nicely dressed Chinese lady stopped Molly and asked if she spoke English. We both stopped and talked with her for a minute, she seemed very pleasant. She then asked if we would like to have a cup of tea with her so she can practice her English and talk to us about our country. With a tad of apprehension we said "ok" and she took us down the street to this tea house that she knew about. We walked into a little store and the tea house was in the back of it, upstairs. We go upstairs and she puts us into this private room, about the size of a good sized bathroom. In this room is a table and a young lady to make the tea for us. The nicely dressed woman says that we can call her Lisa. Lisa says that she is a traditional Chinese woman and it is custom for the man to pay for the first cup of tea. I think "what the hell?" its a cup of tea. I say ok. She asks us to pick 4 teas that we want to taste from these jars to see which one we want to have a cup of. We pick 4 and the tea maker makes us a thimble sized tasting portion, all the while Lisa is telling us how she is in school getting her masters in fashion design. After we taste a few Lisa pulls out the menu and shows us that the tea was 50 yuan per taste, per thimble basically. I say "wow that's allot, we are not interested in anymore" I finally see whats happening here, its a Beijing scam. I tell her that we would like to leave and she says "ok, its a shame you have to leave so soon but at least we have this memory, ill just get the bill". She leaves the room and comes back with the bill. (Which was fishy in itself because the bill is always brought to you, you never go get it.) She slides it over in front of me and it says that I owe 700 yuan. (106 USD) I just laugh and say that I am not paying for this. She begins the argument civilly: "you said you would pay when I asked" I said "yea and after I saw your prices I retracted my offer, do you know what retracted means?" We went back and forth for a good 30 minutes. She said "fine, ill pay half". I still didn't back down. I look at Molly and her eyes are the size of dinner plates, she is scared. We are in this tiny room with a lady who is trying to take our money. Lisa comes back with "ok 300 and you can go". I tell her "I know what you are doing and I feel very taken advantage of, im not paying you!" Lisa starts yelling "How are you going to do this? In front of her? (pointing to Molly) Think about how this will make you look!!" I tell her that I am not worried about that in any way and that we would like to leave. Molly and I both stand up and Lisa blocks the door and pushes me back. She says "Fine! 200 and you can go!". I say "no way, ill give you a hundred for the tea that we drank and we are leaving". I hand her a hundered dollar bill and she says "no, 150!!" She is still blocking the door. I tell her no, she says "fine, we will call the police! Call the police!!". I am 98% sure that she is bluffing, the whole "call the police" thing is her last card to play. I say screw it and throw a fifty on the table, when Lisa goes to pick it up Molly and I move around her and bolt out the door. As we are leaving she is cursing us out like mad "F*ck you you piece of sh*t!! F*ck you!!". We get back out to the street and find the nearest cab to take us back to our hotel. Whew! That was an experience! Other than that the trip was awesome. Our hotel was really close to these 2 ancient towers and in between them were these men with these birds that would fetch. It was pretty amazing, the bird would be perched on his hand or his shoulder and he had a white marble sided bead. He would throw the bead about 20 or so feet in the air and the bird would fly up and catch it. How that bird could see a white marble in the sky on a coudy day is beyond me but it was pretty amazing. Our last night there we found a Canadian joint, we just wanted some beers and we walked in there was a big screen TV playing Anchorman and the draft beers were 10 yuan each. This is the place! We sat there and watched 3 movies while the beer was a flowin. Great way to end the trip.
These happening aren't in any particular order, I'm just writing them as I remember them. It has been 3 months since Ive arrived here and it feels like Ive been here for four times that long. I have continued to take Chinese lessons and I've fallen into a routine at work. I've even had a very special lady visit me from the states. I will re-name her Molly because I don't know how she feels about me writing about her. Molly is very special to me, we have known each other since the 8th grade and got reacquainted while I was at home waiting to leave for China. She came to visit me and I took some much deserved time off of work. Talking with some friends here, they decided it would be good for us to take a trip to Beijing to see the sights and to just get out of Jinzhou for a bit. They(my friends) basically planned the entire trip for us: train tickets, hotel, tour guide, and all we had to do is show up at the right place at the right time. It was pretty sweet of them. I was told that in Beijing that you can find whatever western food you want, so that's what we did. We were going to be eating tons of Chinese food in Jinzhou so we went on a mission to find western food that we could find nowhere else but there. Beijing is huge by the way, 20 million people. We ate Indian food (still Asian I know but not Chinese), pasta, burgers, poutine (french fries with gravy, Canadian staple), and of course pizza. We went to a pizza hut which doesn't sound too fun does it? Well, here, Pizza Huts are a fancy sit down restaurant, its kinda weird in a good way.
Anywho, to the good stuff. My friends arraigned a tour service for us to see the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. The Ming Tombs are the grave sites for the emperors during the Ming dynasty. There are 13 of them but only 1 or 2 are open to the public. That place was really cool, there were a couple of temple style buildings and behind the last one was a huge mound that actually had the body/bodies in it. It hasn't been excavated yet. There was even a well area that was said to be dedicated to the concubines to the emperor. They said that the emperor had thousands of concubines and those who didn't bare him a son were sacrificed once the emperor died. They said there were hundreds.
After the Ming Tombs they took us to a jade carving facility where we tourists could spend some money if we felt like it or just look around. Some of the jade carvings there were amazing. I couldn't imagine the pressure a carver would be under. If they made a mistake, the project would be ruined and the jade wouldn't nearly be as valuable.
After that we had lunch then got back on the minibus to head to an area of the Great Wall. I don't remember exactly what section we were on but it was the highest section. Molly and I walked around for 2 hours and loved every second. It was amazing up there. You could see the wall meandering off the mountain sides in both directions. We allot of walking and there were allot of steps, some were extremely steep. At times the next step in front of you would be as high as your knees so you would have to hop up onto it. Before we got there the tour guide said "remember this was was made for the military, not for tourists." . It was a hell of a workout and the view was spectacular. Needless to say, we were spent by the end of the day. The even took us to a tea house where we got to try some amazing Chinese tea, made by people that really knew what they were doing. The didn't just teabag (hehe) some hot water and hand it over. There was even a kind if tea that looked like a ball about the size of a good size gumball. Once you put it into the hot water it would hydrate and an amazing flower would be floating in your tea. The flower was the tea. Pretty cool stuff. So after that it was time to end the tour and Molly and I were having out pizza craving. We asked the tour guides to drop us off and the closest pizza hut to our hotel. They obliged and dropped us off at this huge shopping mall and said that the Hut was inside. We ate some pizza at the fancy pizza hut and on our way out of the mall a nicely dressed Chinese lady stopped Molly and asked if she spoke English. We both stopped and talked with her for a minute, she seemed very pleasant. She then asked if we would like to have a cup of tea with her so she can practice her English and talk to us about our country. With a tad of apprehension we said "ok" and she took us down the street to this tea house that she knew about. We walked into a little store and the tea house was in the back of it, upstairs. We go upstairs and she puts us into this private room, about the size of a good sized bathroom. In this room is a table and a young lady to make the tea for us. The nicely dressed woman says that we can call her Lisa. Lisa says that she is a traditional Chinese woman and it is custom for the man to pay for the first cup of tea. I think "what the hell?" its a cup of tea. I say ok. She asks us to pick 4 teas that we want to taste from these jars to see which one we want to have a cup of. We pick 4 and the tea maker makes us a thimble sized tasting portion, all the while Lisa is telling us how she is in school getting her masters in fashion design. After we taste a few Lisa pulls out the menu and shows us that the tea was 50 yuan per taste, per thimble basically. I say "wow that's allot, we are not interested in anymore" I finally see whats happening here, its a Beijing scam. I tell her that we would like to leave and she says "ok, its a shame you have to leave so soon but at least we have this memory, ill just get the bill". She leaves the room and comes back with the bill. (Which was fishy in itself because the bill is always brought to you, you never go get it.) She slides it over in front of me and it says that I owe 700 yuan. (106 USD) I just laugh and say that I am not paying for this. She begins the argument civilly: "you said you would pay when I asked" I said "yea and after I saw your prices I retracted my offer, do you know what retracted means?" We went back and forth for a good 30 minutes. She said "fine, ill pay half". I still didn't back down. I look at Molly and her eyes are the size of dinner plates, she is scared. We are in this tiny room with a lady who is trying to take our money. Lisa comes back with "ok 300 and you can go". I tell her "I know what you are doing and I feel very taken advantage of, im not paying you!" Lisa starts yelling "How are you going to do this? In front of her? (pointing to Molly) Think about how this will make you look!!" I tell her that I am not worried about that in any way and that we would like to leave. Molly and I both stand up and Lisa blocks the door and pushes me back. She says "Fine! 200 and you can go!". I say "no way, ill give you a hundred for the tea that we drank and we are leaving". I hand her a hundered dollar bill and she says "no, 150!!" She is still blocking the door. I tell her no, she says "fine, we will call the police! Call the police!!". I am 98% sure that she is bluffing, the whole "call the police" thing is her last card to play. I say screw it and throw a fifty on the table, when Lisa goes to pick it up Molly and I move around her and bolt out the door. As we are leaving she is cursing us out like mad "F*ck you you piece of sh*t!! F*ck you!!". We get back out to the street and find the nearest cab to take us back to our hotel. Whew! That was an experience! Other than that the trip was awesome. Our hotel was really close to these 2 ancient towers and in between them were these men with these birds that would fetch. It was pretty amazing, the bird would be perched on his hand or his shoulder and he had a white marble sided bead. He would throw the bead about 20 or so feet in the air and the bird would fly up and catch it. How that bird could see a white marble in the sky on a coudy day is beyond me but it was pretty amazing. Our last night there we found a Canadian joint, we just wanted some beers and we walked in there was a big screen TV playing Anchorman and the draft beers were 10 yuan each. This is the place! We sat there and watched 3 movies while the beer was a flowin. Great way to end the trip.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Rough week..
This week has been sort of tough on me. Mainly because its an American holiday and I hear about everyone in the states going to be with their families. Makes me miss mine. Although, holidays in my family have lost their luster in the past several years. I don 't know if it's because we are all older now or because of the obvious void in the Freed family. It's like we sometimes avoid getting together because we don't want deal with the fact that we are incomplete and its a holiday. Its not that we are trying to avoid each other, don't get me wrong, we love the hell out of each other. Its just the holidays are when the entire family unit is supposed to be in the same place, celebrating together, I miss that, I want that. The problem is, the what I want is what we had 10 years ago, before we knew dad was even sick. I'll never get that, I know this. So here now are my options: Take my brothers lead and begin a family (which is odd because the older I get the more I think I want that), continue to be a wondering soul and live in the present, or hit the goldmine and find a medium between the two. Oh the choices one makes.
Anywho, I said that this blog was going to be about my time in China and not about my personal trials and tribulations. Just been thinking allot lately.
Winter has finally arrived in Jinzhou and it gets pretty damn cold. I have some decent layers to put on but nothing super heavy. I left all of that at home due to its weight in my luggage. I may have to cough up some cash and buy a proper coat. Now I'm faced with the decision, do I splurge and spend 1/3 or my monthly salary on a coat that will last, or be cheap and get one that will probably fall apart after 1 winter.
I finally started Chinese lessons last week. Its a pretty sweet language, I'm excited to learn it. I've only had one lesson and there are already several things that are sticking in the ol noggin. I'm pretty happy about that. Hopefully I'm one of those people who picks up languages fairly easily. I still know allot of Spanish from my high school classes and that was over a decade ago. It helps to have a good teacher, which I do. Her English name is Jesse and she teaches a few of the foreign staff here. I have decided to only learn the language at this point. I may work my way up to the characters later.
In high school this week I made a lesson describing the Thanksgiving holiday and dumbed it down as much as I could. They were still clueless. Although in every class I asked them what day it was, and at least one person knew it was Thanksgiving. I basically read a children's version of the story of Thanksgiving to them, making sure to throw in a little history about how we eventually treated the Native Americans, couldn't leave that part out. I was basically talking to myself because no one was listening to what I was saying. It was kinda disheartening really, being ignored by that amount of people, Chinese teacher included.
Oh well, its times like those when you just take a deep breath and shake it off because if I let stuff like that get under my skin, its going to be a long year. Whats the saying....." The character of a man cannot be determined during times of calmness and serenity but during times of conflict and controversy".
Anywho, I said that this blog was going to be about my time in China and not about my personal trials and tribulations. Just been thinking allot lately.
Winter has finally arrived in Jinzhou and it gets pretty damn cold. I have some decent layers to put on but nothing super heavy. I left all of that at home due to its weight in my luggage. I may have to cough up some cash and buy a proper coat. Now I'm faced with the decision, do I splurge and spend 1/3 or my monthly salary on a coat that will last, or be cheap and get one that will probably fall apart after 1 winter.
I finally started Chinese lessons last week. Its a pretty sweet language, I'm excited to learn it. I've only had one lesson and there are already several things that are sticking in the ol noggin. I'm pretty happy about that. Hopefully I'm one of those people who picks up languages fairly easily. I still know allot of Spanish from my high school classes and that was over a decade ago. It helps to have a good teacher, which I do. Her English name is Jesse and she teaches a few of the foreign staff here. I have decided to only learn the language at this point. I may work my way up to the characters later.
In high school this week I made a lesson describing the Thanksgiving holiday and dumbed it down as much as I could. They were still clueless. Although in every class I asked them what day it was, and at least one person knew it was Thanksgiving. I basically read a children's version of the story of Thanksgiving to them, making sure to throw in a little history about how we eventually treated the Native Americans, couldn't leave that part out. I was basically talking to myself because no one was listening to what I was saying. It was kinda disheartening really, being ignored by that amount of people, Chinese teacher included.
Oh well, its times like those when you just take a deep breath and shake it off because if I let stuff like that get under my skin, its going to be a long year. Whats the saying....." The character of a man cannot be determined during times of calmness and serenity but during times of conflict and controversy".
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Take on me....
I begin this post with the headphones in my ears blasting Ah-Ha and a new found perspective on what I am doing here in this far away country. I am a damn good teacher. I am starting to grow into my own style here and I gotta say it feels good.
I feel comfortable walking down the street, sure I'm getting painted by the eyes of everyone that passes me but I've realized its out of curiosity, nothing else. I used to feel judged and unwanted by the people here but it turns out that I was just mis-reading their facial expressions. This is a small city, they aren't used to seeing a 6 foot tall, bearded, long haired, white fella who just so happens to be devastatingly handsome :).
For the first time in my life I am the minority and being in this position helps me realize the enormous balls it takes for someone from another country to come to the states and try to establish themselves. People in America are assholes, especially in the way we treat outsiders. The people here are very patient with the fact that I don't speak their language, they will either speak slower or even take time to teach me a few words! What would we do in the states if someone came into a store and couldn't communicate with us? Probably get frustrated and mutter to ourselves "why the hell you come here if you cant even speak the language?". Even with our growing Hispanic population in the states that can speak a little bit of English, enough to get by anyway, we still treat them like crap because we think they don't know enough English to live there. When you find yourself acting like that, do everyone a favor and think to yourself......."How many languages do I speak?". Most likely 1 right? Well they can speak 2 and that's more than you, so shut the hell up! And if you can speak more than 1 you should understand how hard it is to learn a new language and show them some respect. Whew! That feels better. Thanks for being patient with my rant. Anywho...
Teaching has become easier and easier as time goes by. My classes are getting used to me and loosening up. My EF students wait for me outside the staff office because they can't wait to hang out with me and my high school kids find me in the hallway to welcome me. Everyone is so kind and respectful for the most part. I love teaching English because I am guaranteed at least 7 or 8 good laughs every class. People (especially Asians) trying to speak English as a second language can come up with some hysterical stuff. For example: In my oldest group of EF students we were having casual conversation and one of the students started talking about Spam and how he read that it was referred to as "mind meat" for soldiers in WWII. This student couldn't pronounce the word "mind" very well so when he first said "mind meat" it came out as "man meat". I was taken aback and looked at him with a tilted head like Cooper if he saw a dog on the TV. So I spend the next 10 minutes explaining to this kid what man meat actually was in the most PC way I could think of and how in the states if you were to ask someone for some "man meat" it would probably result in a fight. Finally he figured out what I was referring to and corrected me. We had a good laugh.
This was an exciting week in my high school classes because I had the opportunity to sing in front of one class and say obscenities in 2 others. Ill start with the singing story: On Wednesday I began 3 new classes and usually for the first class I like to introduce myself to the kids with a slide show then play some games so I can see how much English they know and they can have a little fun. In one class during my slide show I asked them "who can guess which state I am from?" . I hear California and New York, never expecting them to know about West Virginia because lets face it, some Americans don't even know about it. "Oh I got family in Richmond!" Freaking morons. So I give them a hint and start singing "Country Roads". One young lady stands up, points and me and yells "WEST VIRGINIA!!!". I'm floored. Turns out that "Country Roads" is one of the most popular songs in Jinzhou! I'm serious! Everyone knows it!! The teacher even asked me to sing the song for her class and they sang along with me! It was great!
I told them that they have no idea how happy and warm it makes me feel that I can travel across the globe and songs about my humble state are known. It was a beautiful moment for me.
Ok now to the obscenities: The lesson plan I had made for that day was to show some pictures of my friends on the over head projector and they had to use their imagination to think of : their name, how old they were, where they lived, what their job was, and a secret about them. I thought it would be good for these kids to spark some abstract thought while thinking about side the box of the English they have learned. So I split them into teams and they had to write their answers on the blackboard. There were 3 teams and I talked about their answers 1 by 1 and one of the teams guessed that the person in the picture was fifty, they didn't write the number 50 they wrote the word. When I came read it, the person had forgotten to put the upper hook part of the f's in the word fifty, so the f's looked like the letter t. I asked " are those supposed to be f's?", "because that says titty!" (think if me saying that like Dave Chappelle would say it). Once again the room is silent as I am bent over laughing. They have no idea what I've just said, they just let me know that yes, those are supposed to be f's.
My last class of the day had the same lesson and one of the teams wrote in the "secret" section that the person "liked to break wind - bullshit". I read it out loud and some of them giggled but the others really had no idea that it wasn't a school appropriate word. I spent the next few minutes trying to explain that it was a bad word and that although it was funny they should probably stop using that word in school. I actually took a picture of the chalkboard on that last one, that couldn't go undocumented, it was too funny.
I feel comfortable walking down the street, sure I'm getting painted by the eyes of everyone that passes me but I've realized its out of curiosity, nothing else. I used to feel judged and unwanted by the people here but it turns out that I was just mis-reading their facial expressions. This is a small city, they aren't used to seeing a 6 foot tall, bearded, long haired, white fella who just so happens to be devastatingly handsome :).
For the first time in my life I am the minority and being in this position helps me realize the enormous balls it takes for someone from another country to come to the states and try to establish themselves. People in America are assholes, especially in the way we treat outsiders. The people here are very patient with the fact that I don't speak their language, they will either speak slower or even take time to teach me a few words! What would we do in the states if someone came into a store and couldn't communicate with us? Probably get frustrated and mutter to ourselves "why the hell you come here if you cant even speak the language?". Even with our growing Hispanic population in the states that can speak a little bit of English, enough to get by anyway, we still treat them like crap because we think they don't know enough English to live there. When you find yourself acting like that, do everyone a favor and think to yourself......."How many languages do I speak?". Most likely 1 right? Well they can speak 2 and that's more than you, so shut the hell up! And if you can speak more than 1 you should understand how hard it is to learn a new language and show them some respect. Whew! That feels better. Thanks for being patient with my rant. Anywho...
Teaching has become easier and easier as time goes by. My classes are getting used to me and loosening up. My EF students wait for me outside the staff office because they can't wait to hang out with me and my high school kids find me in the hallway to welcome me. Everyone is so kind and respectful for the most part. I love teaching English because I am guaranteed at least 7 or 8 good laughs every class. People (especially Asians) trying to speak English as a second language can come up with some hysterical stuff. For example: In my oldest group of EF students we were having casual conversation and one of the students started talking about Spam and how he read that it was referred to as "mind meat" for soldiers in WWII. This student couldn't pronounce the word "mind" very well so when he first said "mind meat" it came out as "man meat". I was taken aback and looked at him with a tilted head like Cooper if he saw a dog on the TV. So I spend the next 10 minutes explaining to this kid what man meat actually was in the most PC way I could think of and how in the states if you were to ask someone for some "man meat" it would probably result in a fight. Finally he figured out what I was referring to and corrected me. We had a good laugh.
This was an exciting week in my high school classes because I had the opportunity to sing in front of one class and say obscenities in 2 others. Ill start with the singing story: On Wednesday I began 3 new classes and usually for the first class I like to introduce myself to the kids with a slide show then play some games so I can see how much English they know and they can have a little fun. In one class during my slide show I asked them "who can guess which state I am from?" . I hear California and New York, never expecting them to know about West Virginia because lets face it, some Americans don't even know about it. "Oh I got family in Richmond!" Freaking morons. So I give them a hint and start singing "Country Roads". One young lady stands up, points and me and yells "WEST VIRGINIA!!!". I'm floored. Turns out that "Country Roads" is one of the most popular songs in Jinzhou! I'm serious! Everyone knows it!! The teacher even asked me to sing the song for her class and they sang along with me! It was great!
I told them that they have no idea how happy and warm it makes me feel that I can travel across the globe and songs about my humble state are known. It was a beautiful moment for me.
Ok now to the obscenities: The lesson plan I had made for that day was to show some pictures of my friends on the over head projector and they had to use their imagination to think of : their name, how old they were, where they lived, what their job was, and a secret about them. I thought it would be good for these kids to spark some abstract thought while thinking about side the box of the English they have learned. So I split them into teams and they had to write their answers on the blackboard. There were 3 teams and I talked about their answers 1 by 1 and one of the teams guessed that the person in the picture was fifty, they didn't write the number 50 they wrote the word. When I came read it, the person had forgotten to put the upper hook part of the f's in the word fifty, so the f's looked like the letter t. I asked " are those supposed to be f's?", "because that says titty!" (think if me saying that like Dave Chappelle would say it). Once again the room is silent as I am bent over laughing. They have no idea what I've just said, they just let me know that yes, those are supposed to be f's.
My last class of the day had the same lesson and one of the teams wrote in the "secret" section that the person "liked to break wind - bullshit". I read it out loud and some of them giggled but the others really had no idea that it wasn't a school appropriate word. I spent the next few minutes trying to explain that it was a bad word and that although it was funny they should probably stop using that word in school. I actually took a picture of the chalkboard on that last one, that couldn't go undocumented, it was too funny.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Strapped for topics, read at your own risk.
This blog thing has started to slow down a bit. I just cant think of anything to write about. Is it because I am boring? Perhaps. Is it because the initial excitement of being in a new country has subsided? Perhaps that as well. Just like in the states, I have fallen into a routine: work, eat, sleep, repeat. My weekends are nice and relaxing, kinda boring/lonely though. There is no one to talk to ya know? There are a few fluent English speakers around but they are usually busy doing their own thing. I suppose that should be my motivation to learn the language, so I can more people to talk to!
Teaching at the highschool the other day I started my lesson with some slang. I talked about how the English they are learning is correct but the reality is that we don't really talk that way. "Hello Rob... How are you? .. I am happy, how are you....(robot voice). So I decided to lay some slang on them. One class really got into learning it all. I asked them to give me an activity that they like to do and I would tell them if there was English slang for it. I gave basketball = shooting hoops as an example. They gave me several activities; one of them was going to the"WC" (water closet, aka bathroom). I had to pause for a second and think about the appropriateness level of what I was about to do say to them. I picked a few relatively harmless slang terms for going to the bathroom: Going to the John, I got to take a leak, I need to pee.
Those were pretty funny to hear repeated in unison by 60 people. After everything I said I would glance over to the teacher to see if she understood me, she didn't seem to, although later in the class she stopped me and asked me to teach something else to get the kids actively involved in speaking or writing.
It might have been a coincidence or maybe the universe decided to play a joke on me but halfway through my first class I could feel the street vendor food I had for lunch doing some Tasmanian devil dances in my gut. Ok, I should front load that in public restrooms in China there are 2 things different. 1: squatter toilets (basically a hole in the floor) and 2: no toilet paper is provided, you are expected to supply your own. Guess who didn't have any of the latter?! This guy! I manage not to lose face in class even though I could feel my internal organs liquefying and once the bell rang I made the most awkward bee line in history to American Mike (who was there teaching also) to see if he had any supplies for me. He shakes his head no. I know what must be done. I keep a bandanna in my back pocket for my constant runny nose and now it is time for this ironically brown bandanna is about to pay the ultimate sacrifice. I thank you bandanna. Your sacrifice will not have been in vain. I have now told the story of your kindness to the world.
So, lesson learned. When you are out, ALWAYS carry some for of tp with you.
I'm wondering if I should blame the street food. I have eaten from this families cart several times and although they do give me indigestion, it has never resulted in a fill blowout.
Maybe I should give them a break for a week or two, or until everything mellows out downtown if you know what I'm saying.
We've named it the Chinese gyro: The wife cuts a piece of dough off of a bigger chuck and flattens it until is the size of a corn tortilla. She hands it to her husband who throws it on a huge frying pan type thing with some oil and begins to fry it. A few minutes later he flips the bread, tears a whole in the top later and pours in a raw egg, he lets that cook for a few then flips it again.
He then puts on the thinly slices marinated chicken and hands the fried bread back to his wife. With a paint brush she puts on 2 different spicy sauces and stuffs in some bib lettuce. When the chicken is finished the husband passes it to the wife and she puts it in the fried bread and drops in into a bag. 3 yuan.. about 50 cents. All the while their 4 year old son in a teddy bear outfit stands between them staring at you because he has never seen a westerner before. Good stuff.
That same day at highschool I had the chance to finally issue some English names to some of my students who didn't yet have one. This was exciting to me because these are the names they will be going by for the rest of their English speaking lives! I wrote the alphabet onto the chalkboard and had them pick the letter that they wanted their name to start with. Once they picked a letter I thought of all the English names I could that began with said letter. I only gave out a few, here they are: Mark, Hannah, Evelyn, and Sierra. They all seemed to be happy with their new names. Good times.
Teaching at the highschool the other day I started my lesson with some slang. I talked about how the English they are learning is correct but the reality is that we don't really talk that way. "Hello Rob... How are you? .. I am happy, how are you....(robot voice). So I decided to lay some slang on them. One class really got into learning it all. I asked them to give me an activity that they like to do and I would tell them if there was English slang for it. I gave basketball = shooting hoops as an example. They gave me several activities; one of them was going to the"WC" (water closet, aka bathroom). I had to pause for a second and think about the appropriateness level of what I was about to do say to them. I picked a few relatively harmless slang terms for going to the bathroom: Going to the John, I got to take a leak, I need to pee.
Those were pretty funny to hear repeated in unison by 60 people. After everything I said I would glance over to the teacher to see if she understood me, she didn't seem to, although later in the class she stopped me and asked me to teach something else to get the kids actively involved in speaking or writing.
It might have been a coincidence or maybe the universe decided to play a joke on me but halfway through my first class I could feel the street vendor food I had for lunch doing some Tasmanian devil dances in my gut. Ok, I should front load that in public restrooms in China there are 2 things different. 1: squatter toilets (basically a hole in the floor) and 2: no toilet paper is provided, you are expected to supply your own. Guess who didn't have any of the latter?! This guy! I manage not to lose face in class even though I could feel my internal organs liquefying and once the bell rang I made the most awkward bee line in history to American Mike (who was there teaching also) to see if he had any supplies for me. He shakes his head no. I know what must be done. I keep a bandanna in my back pocket for my constant runny nose and now it is time for this ironically brown bandanna is about to pay the ultimate sacrifice. I thank you bandanna. Your sacrifice will not have been in vain. I have now told the story of your kindness to the world.
So, lesson learned. When you are out, ALWAYS carry some for of tp with you.
I'm wondering if I should blame the street food. I have eaten from this families cart several times and although they do give me indigestion, it has never resulted in a fill blowout.
Maybe I should give them a break for a week or two, or until everything mellows out downtown if you know what I'm saying.
We've named it the Chinese gyro: The wife cuts a piece of dough off of a bigger chuck and flattens it until is the size of a corn tortilla. She hands it to her husband who throws it on a huge frying pan type thing with some oil and begins to fry it. A few minutes later he flips the bread, tears a whole in the top later and pours in a raw egg, he lets that cook for a few then flips it again.
He then puts on the thinly slices marinated chicken and hands the fried bread back to his wife. With a paint brush she puts on 2 different spicy sauces and stuffs in some bib lettuce. When the chicken is finished the husband passes it to the wife and she puts it in the fried bread and drops in into a bag. 3 yuan.. about 50 cents. All the while their 4 year old son in a teddy bear outfit stands between them staring at you because he has never seen a westerner before. Good stuff.
That same day at highschool I had the chance to finally issue some English names to some of my students who didn't yet have one. This was exciting to me because these are the names they will be going by for the rest of their English speaking lives! I wrote the alphabet onto the chalkboard and had them pick the letter that they wanted their name to start with. Once they picked a letter I thought of all the English names I could that began with said letter. I only gave out a few, here they are: Mark, Hannah, Evelyn, and Sierra. They all seemed to be happy with their new names. Good times.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
1 month in.
So it has officially been a month since I moved to Jinzhou and I am starting to feel pretty comfortable. I know a little Chinese and I am starting to make friends outside of work. Today was my first day of visiting an ancient Chinese well.... anything. It was a tower type structure, I don't know what it is called or what it was used for but I do know that it is almost 1000 years old. Think about that. That thing has been standing 776 years longer than the U.S has even existed. Pretty amazing to ponder on.
I went alone and the park it was in was pretty much empty. There was a fella there practicing his sword skills, and there were a couple ladies doing tia chi / fan dancing. It was an amazing site for me because I love history and this is the first bit if Chinese history I've gotten to experience. You can almost feel it, ya know? Have you ever walked around Gettysburg Pa. and just felt that something incredible happened there? It was like that, only I had no clue what went on around this thing so there was a bit of mystery included with it. So now I'm on a mission to find out what this tower was all about in its prime. It is probably about 7 stories tall with stone carvings all around the base. It was fenced off so I couldn't get to close or go inside. On one side of it there was an altar of sorts with incense burning and a kneeling pad for prayer. There was also a man walking around the structure with his hands in front of him in prayer position. I'm thinking it is a religious monument or some sort. Who knows! I'll let you know when I know!
I went alone and the park it was in was pretty much empty. There was a fella there practicing his sword skills, and there were a couple ladies doing tia chi / fan dancing. It was an amazing site for me because I love history and this is the first bit if Chinese history I've gotten to experience. You can almost feel it, ya know? Have you ever walked around Gettysburg Pa. and just felt that something incredible happened there? It was like that, only I had no clue what went on around this thing so there was a bit of mystery included with it. So now I'm on a mission to find out what this tower was all about in its prime. It is probably about 7 stories tall with stone carvings all around the base. It was fenced off so I couldn't get to close or go inside. On one side of it there was an altar of sorts with incense burning and a kneeling pad for prayer. There was also a man walking around the structure with his hands in front of him in prayer position. I'm thinking it is a religious monument or some sort. Who knows! I'll let you know when I know!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Interesting times we live in....
Its been a few days since my last post and not too much has happened. Or has it? Maybe I am just getting desensitised to everything after being here for a month. The insane driving doesn't scare me anymore, the pigeons in cages outside of restaurants, doesn't get to me. Teaching has gotten a little stale as well, actually I have 2 stories that are pretty funny/interesting. Last week during my "trailblazers" class, a couple things happened. One of my students decided to pull out a pocket knife and start playing with it in class. Working with kids in the wilderness I am used to seeing them with knives so I didn't think anything of it, I just told him to put it away. Later in the class he pulls it out again and is playing with it/ testing its edge. It finally clicks in my brain that one of my students had a 4 inch blade in school. No bueno! I tell him to give it to me and he hands it over willingly. After class I take him down to the front desk, give the knife to one of the head people and tell them to call is parents and let them know that their kid is 1. carrying a knife and 2. busting it out in class around all the other students. Not sure if they followed through on calling the folks.
The other thing. In the same class I decided to play a game called "Turtle". For those who know me, im sure we have played this game together. It is a tongue twister game that goes from one to ten. One being the easiest and ten being the hardest. One of the kids got stuck on # 8, which goes like this: "eight egotistical egotists echoing echoing egotistical ecstasy". This student started out and got stuck on "egotistical", he would say "ego......testicle!", and of course with me being a 30 year old child I keel over i'm laughing so hard. I find it so funny I leave the room to go and grab my camera (which has a video record option) and make him say it again so I can get it recorded. I can't wait to show my friends this video. Good shit.
Yesterday I was teaching my highschool classes and I asked them to give me an English word that started with the letter P. They all start yelling out words and I write one of them on the board. Then I ask them to give me a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word. With me so far? Eventually the kids yell out the word "herb!!". My head spins around quickly.. "herb?..... Lets talk about that word for a second". I proceed to tell them that the "H" is silent and not to be pronounced, then we practice saying it..."herb.....herb.... pass the herb....please pass the herb!" Imagine 60 Chinese kids all saying "please pass the herb!" all at the same time! Oh the power!!! Again... good shit.
The food here has become my favorite thing so far. Everything is so good, all I want to do is go to restaurants! My chopstick skills are still lagging but I'm getting better! The other day I was taken to a BBQ joint and we had the basics, chicken, beef, bacon wrapped mushrooms, pork. We also threw in a couple odd ones like chicken cartilage and chicken heads. The cartilage was nothing special, just some crunchy, tough, chicken tasting chunks. The chicken heads were something else. They were symmetrically cut in half and put on sticks (everything was on a stick), seasoned, then grilled. Once they got to our table, we took a look and could see the brain, and eyeballs and everything else in the cabeza. I am told that the best way to eat these babies is to just stick the whole thing in your mouth and suck the meat off the bone, then spit out the bones/beek. I did and it was pretty nasty. It was creamy! Ive had brains before so Iexpected that creaminess but mixed with he juice from the eyeball added a whole new element. Did it taste bad? Not really bad actually. Would I do it again? No, probably not. Not because of the bad taste, its because the meat you get isnt worth the effort. Those bones are sharp!
The other thing. In the same class I decided to play a game called "Turtle". For those who know me, im sure we have played this game together. It is a tongue twister game that goes from one to ten. One being the easiest and ten being the hardest. One of the kids got stuck on # 8, which goes like this: "eight egotistical egotists echoing echoing egotistical ecstasy". This student started out and got stuck on "egotistical", he would say "ego......testicle!", and of course with me being a 30 year old child I keel over i'm laughing so hard. I find it so funny I leave the room to go and grab my camera (which has a video record option) and make him say it again so I can get it recorded. I can't wait to show my friends this video. Good shit.
Yesterday I was teaching my highschool classes and I asked them to give me an English word that started with the letter P. They all start yelling out words and I write one of them on the board. Then I ask them to give me a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word. With me so far? Eventually the kids yell out the word "herb!!". My head spins around quickly.. "herb?..... Lets talk about that word for a second". I proceed to tell them that the "H" is silent and not to be pronounced, then we practice saying it..."herb.....herb.... pass the herb....please pass the herb!" Imagine 60 Chinese kids all saying "please pass the herb!" all at the same time! Oh the power!!! Again... good shit.
The food here has become my favorite thing so far. Everything is so good, all I want to do is go to restaurants! My chopstick skills are still lagging but I'm getting better! The other day I was taken to a BBQ joint and we had the basics, chicken, beef, bacon wrapped mushrooms, pork. We also threw in a couple odd ones like chicken cartilage and chicken heads. The cartilage was nothing special, just some crunchy, tough, chicken tasting chunks. The chicken heads were something else. They were symmetrically cut in half and put on sticks (everything was on a stick), seasoned, then grilled. Once they got to our table, we took a look and could see the brain, and eyeballs and everything else in the cabeza. I am told that the best way to eat these babies is to just stick the whole thing in your mouth and suck the meat off the bone, then spit out the bones/beek. I did and it was pretty nasty. It was creamy! Ive had brains before so Iexpected that creaminess but mixed with he juice from the eyeball added a whole new element. Did it taste bad? Not really bad actually. Would I do it again? No, probably not. Not because of the bad taste, its because the meat you get isnt worth the effort. Those bones are sharp!
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