Tuesday, October 21, 2008

stories

Stories I need to remember before they're forgotten:
-the extortion dudes
-ljl at tian shang
-first night at the host fam
-meeting panda
-subsequent meetings with panda
-9/11 potion guy
-yolanda
-meeting ljl
-ting ting, her parents, brother

Thursday, September 25, 2008

club china

From being back to the US for a solid three weeks. Anyone who's been to China will know that you can't really understand what it's like until you've been. And even if you have been, there's a good chance that if you stayed in Beijing or Shanghai you'd probably not really get it.

Monday, July 14, 2008

final act

Last Friday was perhaps my final school-related activity, I was asked by the waiban to take part in a series of interviews of students affected by the May 12th WenChuan earthquake. The interviews were part of a program run by SUNY in which 150 full scholarships would be given to college students who had family members in or around the Sichuan quake area. The scholarships would be given to the students with the best English level and most genuine interest in spending a year in the United States.

There were a total of 47 interviews, of which only seven were English majors. During the interviews, a panel of 14 teachers including myself, quizzed the student on why he or she wanted to study in America, his or her goals, and what the student intended to do if chosen to go. Each interview lasted 5-10 minutes depending on how proficient the student was in English. If the student had exceptional English, the interview would last a bit longer. In the longer interviews, the panel further assessed the student's ability to explain what he or she knows about American culture or what the student planned to study with respect to his or her major. Of the 47 potential students, only ten were chosen based on a combined average score given by the panel.

A number of the interviews ended abruptly when it was determined that the student had either no real desire to go to the US to study or didn't have the confidence or language ability to sit through a university level class in English. One student came in and had absolutely no idea why she was there. She awkwardly came into the conference room, sat down in the chair facing the panel, and introduced herself. When one of the teachers asked why she wanted to go to America to study, she replied, "I didn't know this was to go to America". The teacher then answered, "OK, you're dismissed". Actually a lot of the interviews ended that way. "You're dismissed". It was very Apprentice board room style. Only the students who had no real shot and needed to be booted out were given the "You're dismissed" comment.

In all it took four hours to go through the 47 interviews. By the end, my brain was numb from listening and interpreting, then having to ask a fresh insightful question to the interviewee. It was fun though as I was given complete discretion over what questions I wanted to ask. Additionally I was more or less consulted when the other members of the panel thought it was necessary to end the interview. As I was sitted on the side of the conference table, the rest of the panel turned to me and I either nodded in agreement which perhaps prompted the "You're dismissed" or I asked a follow-up question and continued the dialogue.

I ended up asking a lot of interpretive questions about differences between China and the US. The questions could have been understood in a number of different contexts, perhaps even negatively, but I think the fact I was only asking the question and not suggesting or pointing to a response made it relatively harmless. A few students said they were interested in journalism to whom I asked what the differences between Western, specifically American media and Chinese media. Towards the end of the interviews I started to get weary, and began asking sharper questions. There was one geography major who I believe failed the interview because I asked her which continent America was on. When she didn't know the word "continent" the panel laughed and after one more question she was given a "You're dismissed".

After finishing the last interview, the teachers went into a separate conference room where we all ate lunch. Perhaps it was the heat or the exhaustion after interviewing students for four consecutive hours, but I don't think there was a single word uttered during the meal. After lunch we went back into the conference room with the 15 finalists from the original 47. The 15 finalists were then asked to give a short impromptu speech about why his or her experiences during the earthquake and what he or she could learn from traveling to the US to study. Again the panel gave a score and after another hour the field was finally narrowed down to ten.

As I left the conference room after everything was over, I stopped by the room where the remaining students were filling out forms that would allow them to enter the next round of interviews in Chengdu. I told them they should be proud of how professional they were and gave them tips about how to appeal to a group of people choosing a potential overseas student. I said the first and foremost thing to remember was confidence. I'm not sure whether this was the best advice I could have given them, but I felt that any panel review would rather choose a Chinese student who had the confidence to speak up in class, ask questions, and find a circle of friends as opposed to a student who lacked that confidence. Especially when the interviews are only 5-10 minutes, impressions are everything, and confidence can go a long way...

out...

Sunday, June 29, 2008

little raisin

Our last party of the year finished an hour ago. The occasion was for Sarah's birthday, but it ended up being a zombie theme party, largely in part due to lots of recent talk about zombies and the undead - I've been reading a lot of the Zombie Survival Guide for one reason or the other. It's also been interesting comparing the differences between Chinese zombies and Western zombies. As if there weren't many cultural differences already present, our conceptions of zombies are also quite dissimilar. The Chinese zombie (jiang shi) has red eyes and doesn't walk but jumps upwards of five meters in order to travel, and holds its arms straight out perpindicular to the body. The word "zombie" doesn't translate that well either, as in most dictionaries its listed as "ma mu bu ren de ren" which means someone who is apathetic and uncaring, but has nothing to do with being risen from the dead. And by the way.... -> No, not all we do is party in Nanchong. And when we do party, it's a cultural exchange; the goal is not to get inebriated. We invite all the Chinese people we can. People who can't speak English are encouraged to come. No one is ever denied admission, even if they don't have a costume. At our last party we raised 400 yuan for the earthquake disaster relief. <-

Anyway, I dressed up in my old security guard outfit that I don't think I've worn since '06. Coincidentally, the first Peace Corps party thrown in Nanchong was a Halloween party that Sarah and I organized. I wore the guard outfit then as well. It's strange how it all comes full circle. Not many people came to the party unfortunately. It was organized more or less last minute, and all of my students were either busy studying for exams or had already left. Li Jia Li also had to study, but stopped by for ten minutes or so to say hello.

The previous week, I visited Xi Chong with Sarah at the request of a student of mine, Mariska. Mariska called me and asked me to find a foreigner who could teach an oral English class at her parent's summer school for one week. I told her I would try, and when I wasn't able to find one, I said I would do it, and being the super Peace Corps volunteer team we are, I invited Sarah to come along. The road leading to Xi Chong is largely unpaved and large sections of the road are under heavy construction. Traveling in Mariska's father's rickety van took more time than it should have, because going fast just meant hitting the pot holes and loose rocks with more speed. Finally Sarah and I got there after around an hour and a half of bumping up and down and were immediately escorted in through the front door of the classroom to an uproarious applause from 25 middle school students.

We hadn't really prepared much in terms of teaching content, but then again, it's much easier to teach kids than it is to teach college students. The level of English proficiency is higher at a university as opposed to a primary school. Naturally its rewarding when a teacher can have a dialogue with a student about something a tad bit more relevant than numbers or greetings. In return, however, it takes more time to create ideas for such classes, especially when the number of students exceeds 40. For me it was actually a relief as a change of pace to be able to go to a new classroom with new students and be able to use material that would not necessarily be intellectually challenging but stimulating simply because it was fun.

It was difficult getting into teaching mode after getting out of the car. I had initially expected a short walk to the school and then a brief chat with another teacher perhaps followed by lunch and then our class time. What happened was the van door was opened, Sarah and I were herded out and paraded into the classroom where the students were already waiting for us. As the classroom was one room and open to the outside street, we had barely a few seconds to murmur our plans as we stood in the front of the class. We went with "Simon Says" for our first activity, then taught and sang "If you're happy and you know it".

Mariska had said that the English level of the students was quite low, some not even knowing the ABCs, but in fact most already knew the body parts we were teaching them for Simon Says. The more difficult vocabulary we taught them were "feet" (as opposed to foot which they knew) and "eyebrow". It was a good thing Mariska was there with us because as good as Sarah and my Chinese is, it would take a long time to explain how to play Simon Says in Chinese. Mariska more or less acted as our teaching assistant/translator as Sarah and I explained directions in English and had her say them to the students.

After class was over, Sarah and I went with Mariska, her parents, and another owner of the summer school to eat lunch at an upscale restaurant nearby where we had just taught. We were offered remuneration for coming out to Xi Chong and having the class, but being Peace Corps volunteers we politely declined and explained that as volunteers we can't accept money for something like this. I suggested giving the money intended for us instead to the earthquake relief, and I can only hope that it will be used as such, but in all likelihood it probably will just be pocketed.

Mariska wanted to take us around Xi Chong city, with a population of ~600,000, and show us some "beautiful sites". Sarah and I both agreed and we walked around the enormous square, saw a local high school, and then walked to Mariska's home. It was a nice house within a primary school campus. It was actually one of the most comfortable Chinese homes I had ever been inside. Almost everything was made from wood, including the walls and cabinets. The sofas were soft and plush, and after having ganbei'd several times at lunch, it wasn't difficult at all to fall asleep and take a nap. We ended up playing many games of Dou Di Zhu before deciding to head back to Nanchong. Mariska's mother had offered us a place to stay for the night and suggested we go back to Nanchong the following morning, but we had to return (for something very important) that evening.

On the way to the bus station in Xi Chong, I managed to again leave my phone in a taxi. I now lay to rest the fourth phone I have purchased over the past two years here in China. The taxi we were all in was such shit too, the door wouldn't close, it had no rear view mirrors, and the springs were popping out of the backseat cushions. The driver was a real asshole, too, and asked Sarah and me for money, even though Mariska was paying, when he refused to give us change for a 50 kuai bill. No wonder when I left the cab and got on the bus and realized my phone was gone, it had already been turned off (presumedly by the cab driver) in order to prevent myself or a friend from calling it. Asshole... It's not even the phone that matters, it was really the phone numbers that the phone had inside. I lost a few contacts that I'll have to wait for them to get in touch with me before I can call them back.

The real problem was getting a new cell card with my old phone number. Thankfully when you lose a cell phone the thief will just sell the phone and trash the cell card. In Chile when I lost my phone and got my old number back, people continually called me thinking they were going to get in touch with whomever had stolen my phone. Because my phone card was opened by a student of mine from two years ago, I had to get in touch with her and prove that I was indeed the owner of my phone card and not a crazy foreigner who likes to steal girls' phone numbers. Forget the fact that I was able to supply the last numbers dialed from the phone and times, China Mobile required me to get the ID number of the student who opened the account for me. Also forget the fact that for some reason when I lost my phone the previous three times I never had to get in touch with the student. In the end I tracked her down and got my phone number back. All is well.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Google

Talking to some students about Bush the other day. Someone had a joke book with some good Bush jokes in it.

Wasting time on YouTube.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABli2MT3-r8&feature=related
I think is my favorite.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

formal party

The formal party was a huge success. In all we raised nearly 400 kuai for the earthquake relief efforts. I was initially worried that the party would be misinterpreted by colleagues or other Chinese people living in my building given that the previous week extracurricular activities were canceled schoolwide and three days of national mourning were in effect. We Nanchongren organized a schedule of activities for the party in which we'd be raising money and entertaining at the same time.

Here's how it went down:
7:45 - Moment of silence followed by candle lighting
8:00 - Start of sale of tickets for raffle and candy giveaway. Raffle for two CDs. Candy giveaway entailed people guessing how many candies were in a plastic bear jar. Closest person won. Raffle and candy giveaway tickets were each one yuan.
8:30 - Raffle giveaway. Loopy and Jason each won
9:00 - Candy giveaway announcement. Total number of candies was 51. The candy was split between two people, one of whom guessed 50 and the other 52. The extra candy was given to the person who guessed the furthest from the actual number, one of my students, Peggy; a guess of 140.
9:30 - Magic trick. I rocked the floating cigarette. If you're curious what the floating cigarette is, check my youtube for a practice show before I did the real thing. It's not an easy trick, and there are still some fine points I'm honing, but I think the overall reception was good. A few of my students asked me why I don't teach them this in class. Some of Durf's students were unimpressed, however.
9:35 - Fashion show. Guys and girls walk down the dance floor to music and strut their best moves. Congrats to Bo Tao and Sarah, winners of the male and female parts respectively.
10:30 - Announcement of the final money count ~ 400 yuan.
10:45 - Departure to roof to light fireworks. The blasts were so loud that car alarms on the ground floor were set off.
11:00 - Departure to Tian Shang for post party.

Great night... Oh, and who made such a cool invitation for the party? I do that for free, too. Anyone need an invitation made?

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

back to school

This week was the first teaching week since the earthquake two weeks ago. It was difficult to get started again. I was tired and lethargic through the first class, and I had really no reason to be, either. I hadn't taught for nearly 13 days and for some reason in class I had to summon up my energies and get through it.

McDonald's is back open again. The last time I was downtown (last Saturday) it was at night and the McDonald's, typically open 24/7, was closing down at around 9:00.

There was an aftershock this afternoon while I was teaching class. I was staring at the class watching them do group work when all of a sudden the class erupted in a bloodcurdling shriek. Two boys jumped out the window and bolted down the street. I didn't even feel it. I took the class outside for the remainder of the class time which fortunately was only 20 minutes.

I decided to close the blog for a bit out of fear some of the posts on here might be interpreted as too controversial at a time when foreigners and negativity were heavily scrutinized. I suppose in the end I was overestimating the influence of this blog, but I can't help but think that someone within my immediate community checks this ever so often. Saying the wrong thing, or saying something that could be perceived as negative, especially during this recent period, could get me in some trouble.

More stories soon.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

serious

This morning Sarah sent me a message saying there were crowds gathering outside the McDonald's protesting the fact that the company hadn't given enough money for earthquake relief. The people had apparently dispersed by the afternoon, and there were a number of guards present afterwards.

BeiHu park is full of tents and other makeshift camping setups out of the fear of major aftershocks reported by the government media. It's almost ridiculous at this point, you really want to go up to some of the people and ask them what they're doing.

I met up with Julien and the other PC volunteers at night to say farewell to Nanchong's only Frenchman. We decided to go to unimart and purchase some ice cream, and passed by McDonald's on the way there at around 10:00. There was already a large group of people assembled outside the main entrance. Most of the 100 or so people gathered were in their 20s and 30s, and stood around talking and looking inside the restaurant. McDonald's had apparently been closed earlier in the day because of the protesters preventing workers and patrons from entering, and the lights were still off from before.

A McDonald's employee had put up two posters near the front doors illustrating how the company had actually donated quite a bit of money for earthquake relief efforts. At some point in the day someone had broken the main McDonald's neon marquee above the front doors and pulled the promotional posters off the walls. There were guards and cops around the crowd to make sure it didn't happen again.

The protesters (I guess you could call them that) weren't really doing anything. There was a bunch of standing and talking, but very little action. When the four of us arrived, we were immediately surrounded. We asked questions about what was taking place to a Nanchongren who's English was fairly fluent. Eventually someone made a very direct comment that because we were Americans we probably had lots of money; forget the fact that we were Peace Corps volunteers making less than the person who shouted at us.

In any event, we decided to leave after that comment seeing as there were people around who were clearly itching to get things started and being present only made it more likely we'd be put in a precarious position.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

warnings

There was a warning broadcasted on the radio and TV last night that said there was a great chance of a serious aftershock in or around Nanchong. People again streamed out in hordes, occupying open spaces around the basketball blacktops and along the sidewalks near my house and the teaching buildings.

Apparently the Peace Corps had caught word of the warning and informed our school's foreign affairs office, who then forwarded the message to Ashley and me. I was encouraged by friends to spend the night outside, and even scolded by the local shop sellers that I shouldn't go back to my house. Ashley decided to come over to my house because all the other people in her building had vacated it to sleep on the street, and eventually we were able to convince Bo Tao to do the same. Li Jia Li was too afraid to come with us, and decided to stay near her house sleeping next to a guard station at the middle gate.

Needless to say, there was no earthquake, and all the paranoia-like fear that pervaded the campus yesterday has passed. The aftershock warning continues for the remainder of today, and classes have been canceled... again... I haven't taught now in over a week, and I feel as if I'm starting to lose track of where I am in relation to the end of the semester, especially in terms of what I have to do to finish/wrap up my classes.

There were a number of memorial services downtown that I was able to see at night after I finished my office hours. Some were more organized than others, but all were in central places with various candle arrangements spelling out 5/12 or "zhong guo".

repeated movies

Things some actors are good at:
Ending in a bus -> Dustin Hoffman
Saving a child -> Clive Owen

Thursday, May 15, 2008

everything back to normal

Some of my junior students from last semester with whom I had become close friends stayed at my house the past two days because they had been locked out of their dormitories. A few of the undergraduate dormitories had apparently been damaged slightly and the school, instead of providing alternative housing for the student body, had promptly shut the doors and denied access to anyone attempting to enter. The junior friends of mine had called me and asked if they could stay at my house, a first floor apartment, and of course I agreed. Their options were to either sleep on the street in a makeshift tent with a rice-paper tarp or sleep on the couches in my house.

They were still very concerned about the possibility of a second earthquake, something that I had to dispel numerous times over the past couple days. Many students were afraid to stay in their off campus housing unless they were on the first or second floors because living any higher up would certainly mean their demise in the event of a repeat quake. Li Jia Li perhaps was the most scared of them all; she refused to sleep in her third floor apartment building, purchased sticks of incense to burn at Qing Quan Si (Buddhist temple in Nanchong), spent one night with a blanket in an internet bar chair, and seriously considered flying home to JiangXi province (a four hour trip) to escape the ensuing aftershocks.

An additional wave of panic came when a number of people (who knows who started this?) reported they had seen snakes and rats around Nanchong and predicted that there would be another earthquake soon. The logic, indeed flawless, was that animals have some uncanny sense to perceive impending earthquakes, and that the presence of snakes and rats was somehow a harbinger of an enormous aftershock that would soon take place.

Downtown Nanchong is absolutely normal. You would have never known there was an earthquake at all just from looking around the city. There's no damage to any of the buildings, stores are doing business again, and there are no rescue or assessment crews around. It seems almost as if the craziness of the rumors and borderline paranoia is limited to the student body on campus; understandable, though. Fear spreads pretty quickly when the population has limited access to information and the outside world.

Another big rumor yesterday was the water shortage. I got a call from the waiban explaining that there had been some large chemical factory northwest of Nanchong that was destroyed in the quake. As a result, the water of the Jia Ling river had been contaminated and the water supply in Nanchong was going to be hopelessly limited for an unknown period of time. One hour? One day? Who knew for sure. People started buying bottled water as if the impending blizzard were going to trap as all in our homes for weeks. Crowds thronged around bicycle trucks and pushed and shoved in order to pick up the ever precious case of bottled water; the life source when Y2K hit... I mean the earthquake, oops! (this picture here is from later in the day. earlier there would have been 20 people around these cases of water.)

Needless to say, there was no earthquake, and although I had calmed and comforted the students staying in my house last night not to worry, they still wore their jackets and backpacks to sleep just in case. Class was held as usual this afternoon, except for teachers with classes in the C and D buildings (such as myself) because of minor superficial damage to the roof tiles.

Without downplaying the tragedy of WenChuan and the other parts of China where there had been serious damages and losses of life.. let's get back to reality here.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

camping out

The earthquake started when I was at home at around 2:30. I was sitting in my big chair that faces the window when it began to shake. I initially thought Xiao Qiang was scratching my chair so I hit the padding a few times to scare him away, but when he didn't stop I got up to push him away. It didn't occur to me it was an earthquake until I saw the cat cowering in the corner and the windows in the apartment building across from me waning back and forth.

Last night was the most peculiar thing about the earthquake. Clearly no one in Nanchong had experienced anything like this. Understandably it was quite a shock. When I went to go meet Li Jia Li at the middle gate of the school, students were already leaving their dormitories in hordes and flocking to the playgrounds, stadium, and streets. Most of the people I had talked to explained they were afraid their dormitories would collapse when the next earthquake struck, and had taken to the streets to sleep.

It was actually quite funny, really. It was as if there had been some enormous war and people were forced out onto the streets, forming makeshift refugee camps wherever there was open space. Everyone and their grandmother (literally) was outside last night, rolling out his or her bamboo mat on the ground, a pillow, and a blanket. Out near the dormitories in er qi there was hardly any place to walk around. People stayed up to all hours of the night, some playing dou di zhu, ma jiang, or just talking. Most of the stores never closed (especially those near my house and the middle gate), selling drinks, crackers, and other items that people needed. When I checked the store closest to the middle gate, almost all the drinks and ice cream had been sold and the boss was holding a large plastic bag full of money. Along the street towards the teacher's apartments, people had taken their cars out of the garages, parked them near the stadium, and passed the night sleeping inside. Even I was out there for a bit before I convinced Li Jia Li it was ok to go back inside. Another minor shake that lasted a few seconds took place around 5:00 and we immediately ran outside, but quickly decided to go back indoors when the tiredness hit us again.

This morning people and students were still camped outside, talking and eating food. Classes were canceled for the day, so it'll give me some time to do some work on the site and whatnot. Last night was really something to see though, it was like the great Chinese camp-out.

Monday, May 12, 2008

stupid tv

to get some more information about what was happening in nanchong after the earthquake, i turned on the tv for the first time in several months. i expected to find some sort of live coverage about what was happening; maybe even some pictures of chengdu or nanchong. there were 37 channels, 6 of them repeated, 10 soap operas, 4 specials on china's history, 2 basketball games, 2 reports on the olympics, 2 news program dialogue shows, and 3 previously taped news shows. chinese media has to be the most broadly responsive and entertaining source of information available in the universe. FIRST PRIZE.

wild

just sitting around, thought they were doing some blasting nearby the house as they always do. it didn't stop though. definitely the strongest earthquake i've ever experienced, dwarfing the tiny shakes i'd occasionally feel in chile. being on the first floor probably helped, i can't imagine being some of the students stuck on the eighth floor or anything. after it happened everyone ran out of their buildings (aren't you not supposed to do that?) but so did i. i rode my bike around the campus taking some pictures. i heard a building fell near wu xing. sounds unlikely, but i'll be going downtown to see what happened there in a bit...


----> all the students came out of the dorms
















-----> everyone trying to use their cell phones.
impossible to make a phone call.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

2 guys 1 girl

Weird that everything is coming to an end here...

New store on campus: 2 guys and 1 girl. I'm interested to see what it sells. --------------->

-> Chinese words to remember: cai mao shuang quan (attractive girl that knows who che guevara is)

Monday, May 05, 2008

back to some semblance of a routine

The Labor Day break was fantastic. As always with vacation time here, I planned to do much more than I actually accomplished, but it was still a great time. Met some new people, improved some old relationships, practiced my Chinese, and even got a bit of work done. All in all a satisfying break.

The bad news is that I realized today my bike was missing. I had left my keys inside my house yesterday and was forced to climb through the window in my living room. I was so happy that the window was left unlocked and I was able to enter the house that I forgot I had left the bike outside. Ashley was actually away still so if I hadn't been able to get in I would have been stuck on the street. Anyway I went to go meet Xiao Zhao today for lunch and as usual I decided to bike over, but as I looked around the house I quickly realized the bike wasn't there. I asked around the neighborhood if anyone had seen it but unfortunately it's safe to say it's gone. It wasn't even my bike either, a student lent me it a few months ago, and I promised nothing would happen to it. Some of my other students, Loopy primarily, hinted that I would either break it or lose it, but I said it would never happen. Ha. Never underestimate my power to lose something. It was a pretty poor quality bike, one that the student got for free, but I'll have to replace it nevertheless. I loved that little crap bike...

I bought a new cell phone the other day as well. I was doing a thorough cleaning of my house and had the phone tucked in under my shorts. I felt it vibrate so I reached to pick it up to see who was calling at which point I fumbled it and it fell into the well of the squat toilet, circled for a brief second and then dropped into the black abyss that is the squat toilet pipe. Luckily, someone at the last party had dropped a plastic cup into the pipe as well so the phone only entered the second stage of Chinese squat toilet hell. I reached in and grabbed it out, but it was missing its back, which cost 45 kuai to replace (the phone was only 200). I decided to pick up a non-toilet phone downtown. There were a number of sales for May Day and I got one for 400 that has a camera (won't use it) English/Chinese dictionary (doesn't work) and the greatest part: a calculator that I can punch in the dates and numbers of my last menstruation and the phone will tell me subsequent menses.

I'm thinking back to last week when, according to Sarah, I pulled off the greatest magic trick yet; the Li Jia Li Ting Ting switch. Guess it was kind of cool. They missed each other by mere seconds.

I actually went over to Ting Ting's house this afternoon. I met up with her after she got back from Beijing and we went to eat some noodles at this place near Unimart. We went back to her house for a bit so I could check out her place and meet her dog (a super energetic pug that loved me more than the family). Her parents were perhaps the most spontaneously kind Chinese people I've met here. The immediately made some watered-down coffee for me and gave me a tour of the house (smelled like moth balls). It was quite big and well furnished, but still strangely designed in that Chinese-house way. The dining room and couch area, as in most houses here, is the first area you walk into and usually isn't separated by wall, it's like one enormously long stretch of hallway. It sort of looks more appropriate in my house because I don't really have a dining room, but strange when it's fully decorated and there's no transition between each section.

Ting Ting's parents asked me if I enjoyed the coffee and of course I said I did, at which point they asked me if I drank coffee in America, and I said sometimes, but in China I don't usually. Why not?
Oh, because Chinese green tea is soooo good.
Really? Let's give you some green tea, here drink this!
Ok I'll drink it! Thanks!
An Wen is really good at doing magic tricks..
Not really (ok I'll do one....)
Wow, can you do that with our cards?
Yes! Here let me do one more.

The conversation continued like this until we talked about what the parents do. They were both teachers, but now work for the Nanchong government (I'm still not exactly sure in what capacity) but I explained that in some respect I also work for my government, but I'm not as enthusiastic about the policies of mine. They explained that China also was not very good and that there are a lot of poor people. I said that in 25-30 years, China would surpass the US (a line that I've recently used a lot here - cha bu duo 25-30 nian hou, zhong guo hui chao guao mei guo. zhong guo ren min de yi bei zi yi nian bi yi nian hao le <- also a good one). They disagreed but I explained the development of China's economy is faster than the US will ever be again. It's tough to believe that people who lived through the 60s and 70s in China (Ting Ting's parents and most Nanchongren for example) would ever doubt that times have improved, and will improve, so greatly in such a short period of time.

They ended up giving me a fan that the father had painted his own calligraphy on, and a few Nanchong tourist maps that Ting Ting had modeled for apparently. Ting Ting is older than I am, and she's not yet hit that point where she's visibly aging, but the pictures of her from when she was 20 or 21 are much more flattering.

My mom would be pleased to know this, too, as an advocate against bottle feeding infants. According to the Nanchong tourist map, "Jialing River, slowly flowing down to south from Qinling Mountains breast-feeds all living things on the bank like a kind mother." It continues.... "The people of Nanchong living by the side of Jialing River for generations, suckling prime and taking nimbus widely of the mother river, create Jialing River civilization and superinduce extraordinary splendour for the Chinese nation." <-- I can personally attest to taking nimbus in Nanchong...

Waited for a while to see Li Jia Li but she was working late. She works everyday. It's sort of egregious. It's incredibly interesting seeing the differences and similarities between the two though. Can't figure out which one is more with it. Pictures of both coming soon. Ugh.. So much to do tomorrow.

Also, congratulations to this blog, which now ranks #4 on google for searches of "gap catalogue".

Thursday, May 01, 2008

guevara

I would say the vast majority of people; my students and teachers included have absolutely no idea who Che Guevara is. I suppose in the grand scheme of things he's not that relevant within Chinese society, but he's definitely an important historical figure that everyone should know. Especially if you're in a communist country. Xiao Zhao can't recognize the poster on the door of my apartment as the overused image of Che with scraggly hair and the black hat, but then again she thought the capital of the US was New York. Jason knew who it was, but he's also a history major, so I'd be even more shocked if he didn't. I actually don't think I could go out with someone who didn't know even the most basic knowledge about him.

Che visited China twice, once in 1960 and again in 1965 to meet in Chairman Mao regarding trade with Cuba and the role of the Soviet Union which competed with China for influence. They're both incredibly gifted guerrilla fighters who successfully employed similar tactics to bring about the revolution. While their individual ideologies regarding the role of government (leadership and foreign policy) differed greatly in terms of how the revolutionary policies would be instituted and what role the lower class (industrial workers, peasants, farmers etc..) would play in bringing about social change, they were both essentially Marxists (Guevara perhaps more so) with a sprinkle of Lenin. On a personal level they were both members of the middle class (not a surprise for a revolutionary - who else has time to sit around and contemplate stuff?) and enjoyed discussing history and pao niu-ing... (Wow I had a lot of parentheses in that paragraph)

Wu Yi Jie kuai le...

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

without going into exactly why

but today was a good day...

Tomorrow is Wu Yi Jie!

Friday, April 25, 2008

things to remember

gan qing shen yi kou men

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

talking

All this talk about the protests happening around the center of China against foreigners is worth noting. I had a long discussion yesterday with Jason about the symbolism of such a protest. Today it continued in a similar fashion after our two hour Chinese lesson, but in a different manner. I maintained that China, by winning the olympics for 2008, has forced itself into the world spotlight. Its actions, political on international and domestic fronts, are
----
As I was writing this I got a phone call from Yang Cheng, a PE teacher at the school here. He explained to me (at 11:45) that he was at a KTV bar singing and drinking. He passed the phone to a girl who explained where it was. I said I had class in the morning (not true) but really I wasn't in the mood to go out. I got at most four hours of sleep last night and I didn't want to drink again - especially not KTV style. I reluctantly accepted and headed over to the middle gate to meet Yang Cheng.

I actually don't know exactly how I know this person. Last time I saw him was at the sports meeting last week, and he seemed as if we were the oldest of friends. I had absolutely no idea who he was, but did the typical ever-effective shake-hands-nod maneuver in order to keep it social.

At some point I was asked where I was from and I heard someone murmur something negative about France. I inquired what the person's opinion was of France which in turn spurred an enormous discussion between Li Jia Li (the girl who talked to me on the phone) and the rest of the people I had met at the KTV bar. It turned out Li Jia Li was the boss of the KTV bar and Chinese post graduate student at Xi Hua. The four guys I was with at the time immediately interjected "Fuck France" and "Cao Fa Guo" for effect. From what I could pick up from Li Jia Li's explanation, the four guys (Yang Cheng included) were vehemently anti-France for the recent events in relation to the torch relay, and Li Ji Li was defending the actions and castigating the Chinese people's response against Carrefoure. Li Jia Li was poised and in control, a 19-year-old girl against four middle-aged drunks in a smoky KTV room. It was impressive to watch.

It's pretty stupid anyway when you get down to it. This was the point before I got interrupted by Yang Cheng's call. China requested the world's attention by hosting the Olympics. It asked to host foreign athletes, foreign organizations, and perhaps most importantly foreign media. China's in the spotlight now and it clearly cannot take the heat. There are parts of China's foreign and domestic policy that can be easily denounced; we all know what they are. But when the so-called western media monster critiques aspects of said policy, it suddenly becomes a repeat struggle of the 19th century and western imperialism/colonialist influence.

The western media is definitely not out to get China. Most Chinese people would believe that the "West" is an identity in itself; that anyone further west of India shares a similar mentality that includes at the forefront a deep dividing contrast with the mentality of those living in China. More recently, the deep dividing contrast has been exaggerated by both sides as being something innately tangible. The "East" (essentially China) believes the West is out to get it and the "West" believes that the East is becoming too powerful and therefore is out to get the East. It's quickly becoming a buzz word - the West and the Western media as if all of the people in the western hemisphere are conspiring how to destroy Chinese development. In the end, it's a clash of media roles within the relative cultural context. For example I'm able to say I dislike the American government without necessarily feeling any professional or personal consequences. The same can't be said of a similar comment made by a Chinese journalist within China. Chinese journalists can criticize the West as being an imperialist behemoth. A Western journalist, however, is quickly demonized by China for making similar comments about the East.

The West is not out to destroy China insomuch as China is reacting to the new influx of criticism that comes with western media. People here, however, are slow to realize that hosting the olympics makes you subject to different types of analyses. Some of these analysis are foreign and domestic policy suggestions which the broad population as a whole may not agree with. It's worth keeping in check the fervor with which these four middle-aged men, two of whom are from the Sichuan countryside, have deep-rooted angers against a government that never did anything except allowed a brief public demonstration (or in other eyes attempted to tarnish the harmonious image of the Chinese Olympic spirit by targeting a weak handicapped torch carrier and ultimately prevent China's development as a future world power).

More about this tomorrow. Props to Li Jia Li though, who just actually called me btw...

just another tuesday

Class today was as usual. Morning 8:00. Got there two minutes late because I was cutting up the pieces of paper to play "taboo" with the students and couldn't find my scissors. Then I had to carry the bicycle up six flights of stairs... Oh well. I feel like most of my classes in the morning (and in the afternoon to some degree, too) don't get started until the second period. Almost all the students don't know what is going to happen in the class yet, so they don't know how to position themselves or interpret the information. I like not being predictable. It distances me from the other teaching styles that the students have gotten for 15 years. Yeah, a syllabus would be worthwhile and probably make keeping a schedule much easier, but who's really planning their timetables weeks or months in advance? Things change in China so frequently (especially plans) that it's practically impossible to follow a real strict course syllabus. I realized that very early on in my Peace Corps service.

My class is actually relatively worthless (it receives one credit point) compared to the other courses that are weighted much more heavily in terms of their credit worth. I don't mind that, really. If anything it makes my job easier as I'm not bound to really drill the students to reach some vague and meaningless goal in their English learning. Each week I do my best to present them with a new and contrasting world view, teaching style/methodology, and a fresh concept that they hadn't thought about before. I feel oral English is meant to be fun; like the jazz band part of high school where you've been in history or science or math for the last three hours and for the next period you take out your saxophone and play some hip jazz charts. I hope students come to my class with that feeling; not necessarily of fear, regret, or anger, but of relaxation and curiosity.

After class I came back home and called up Ting Ting. We decided to meet at McDonald's again at which point we hit up a small restaurant near Wu Xing. It wasn't that great, and way overpriced considering the quality, but so are the restaurants near the city center. The tables weren't even high enough to put your legs under so I had to sit awkwardly with my feet crossed to the left of my chair. I never understand why there's such a prevalence of short tables at restaurants.

We decided to hit up a movie and went to the movie theater near the clothing district. Ting Ting thought the movie would have been in English with Chinese subtitles, but it wasn't. I was actually happy about that because I've been trying to immerse myself in Chinese as much as possible lately and focusing on the movie was actually good practice. I couldn't follow much of the intricacies of the plot (it was a terrorist thriller with a super attractive female secret agent lead), but I know it ended in Kuala Lumpur and also took place in France, Italy, and Norway... I'm trying to find the name now, but can't for some reason. It's definitely not an old movie. It was pretty awful though, typical Hollywood garbage, but entertaining. At a few points in the movie, the female lead dresses scantily clad and answers the door in a towel. She asks the stranger to help her fasten the bra clasp behind her back. At this point Ting Ting asks me if this is common in your country...

Just found the name - Kod apokalipsisa. Apparently it's a Russian movie so it wouldn't have mattered if it wasn't dubbed or not. On a side note though, who the hell prefers a dubbed movie? Isn't there a good deal of acting in one's voice? Are we that of a degenerate group of people that we're not able to read subtitles? I can imagine someone thinking to himself, "Fuck subtitles, just let me listen to dialogue in my native language so I don't have to scan the bottom of the screen for a direct translation. I gain nothing from hearing the real actor or actresses voice. Please save me from this grueling mental obligation and strip the movie of any artistic quality it had previous to the butchering of the original production. I prefer images and sounds I can instantly recognize. Oh, and while you're at it, please bring me a copy of Maria Callas in Carmen (voiced over by some Chinese woman), an original Salvador Dali (painted over by some Chinese artist) and To Kill a Mockingbird (rewritten by some Chinese author)."

Here's what Pagliacci would look like:

Ugh so annoying. I'd really like to hear a legitimate argument for dubbing.

Anyway, hit up Tian Shang afterwards and met up with Julien, Durf, Sarah, Tan Ce Tian, She Jian, and the rest of the crew. Ting Ting came along for a bit, everyone had a good time dancing around. Grabbed some Lanzhou noodles and came back home.

Just another Tuesday in Nanchong.

Monday, April 21, 2008

lo que yo amo de chile

un e-mail del Victor Hugo:
-----
Hola muchachos, nunca mando ni reenvío ni pesco la verdad este tipo de cosas que me llegan, pero esta se pasó. veánlo y descubran qué clase de mierdas gobiernan este país.
http://www.coyotefilms.tv/
-----

la personalidad y creatividad de un chileno solito...

Sunday, April 20, 2008

loud party remix

What a strange night...

Saturday, April 19, 2008

loud party!

Loud party.. TONIGHT.

Also ran in the "sports competition" this morning the 100m, and didn't finish last wooh! I didn't Zhu Bin though, which was a disappointment. Ashley did the javelin and shot put. For some reason the people doing the javelin don't run when they throw. They stand stationary and hurl the javelin as if it were a chopstick.

That's all for today.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

loud party

Went loud party shopping today. Hit up Xi Men market for some odds and ends to add to the costume. I'll most likely be going to Chengdu on Friday to get my camera back from the DHL office. It'll be, good god, the third week in a row I'll be going to Chengdu. AND I'll be going the week after as well. I need a camera though seeing as the pictures from the loud party will be well worth the trip. The Nanchong folk have abandoned the rules of secrecy in the hope of defeating the Chengdu-ers in the costume contest. Winner takes home a big bag of chocolate peanuts from Chuan Bei. I'll also be performing a new trick I've been working on. I definitely shouldn't have hyped this trick up as much as I did, but it's pretty cool, even if I may say so myself. Part of the trick will be dedicated to my parents for sending me the materials, as well as Pinball (my American cat who recently passed away) because he definitely would have enjoyed watching this. Xiao Qiang actually liked it too much and messed my first attempt up.

Xiao Qiang zui jin shi zai shi tai tiao pi le! The little bastard meows all the time at night, has been scratching up my screen door. Today I came back home and found a snickers bar half-eaten on the floor of my apartment. I thought cats and dogs couldn't eat chocolate, but this one can. There are chocolate crumbs everywhere. At least he's got good taste.

Tomorrow is the "sports meeting" at Xi Hua. I don't think I've ever done a long jump in my life. I can rock a 100m pretty solidly (I think), maybe 200m as well.

Showed a number of different movies to my classes this week seeing as their probably all fretting about the TEM-4 on Sunday morning. Rushmore, Mean Girls, and Rocket Science were among the three I showed this week. One student put her head down during Rushmore. Who falls asleep during Rushmore? I lost a lot of respect for this person; not that I had a lot to begin with, but you probably know who he or she is. If you don't, ask me later.

Ugh, I STILL have yet to transfer over the website from Xi Hua Online to the school servers. I've been sooooo out of it recently, interested in other things (ie anything other than work, really) and a lot of my obligations have taken back seat. Bu hao, phil, bu hao..

Sunday, April 13, 2008

sundays

Got back from Chengdu last night. Instead of hitting up Tian Shang as usual (there was some party there last night, which means no dance floor and millions of people), decided to meet up with Ting Ting. It was about 10:30 when we finally got together at McDonald's. Got a medium #6! Halfway through the meal, Ting Ting's dad showed up and we ended up talking. I couldn't
understand much of what he was saying through the heavily accented Sichuanhua, but no worries, it was a great time nonetheless.

He wrote a number of Li Bai poems on some of the McDonald's napkins in beautiful calligraphy. He wrote them in traditional Chinese poem format. Top-to-bottom and right-to-left with the author's name and a message in a smaller font on the left of the poem. 

For example:
m    11  6 1
m    12  7 2
m     13 8 3 
m    14  9 4
m  15  10 5

m being author's name and personal message. Each message was for "Mei guo peng you an wen".

side note: Just finished watching "Jumper" what an awful movie...

Anyway, on Thursday there was a speech contest for non-English majors (biology department) which I attended as a judge. I like going to see these things, despite the bad reputation they have for being boring and incredibly repetitive. Usually when you're a judge you get a little present, not necessary, but a nice perk for being there. They are also a curious little parts of Chinese culture you can pull from each speech.

The topic for this last contest was "The Olympics". Here are the speech names (spelling errors not corrected):

The Olympic Companion I Go
What Can We Do for the 2008
The Hreo of the Olympic
Color the Olympic
Go with Olympic Game
(First five speeches part of the group entitled "Olympics Come to My Home")

On Our Way to the 2008 Olympic Games
My Dream of2008 Olympic Games
OLympic Games and Me
Something in My Mind
What Shuld We Do About Olympic Games
(Second five speeches part of the group entitled "Be Going on of Olympics")

Let's Hold Together
Under the Blu Sky of Beijing the Capital of China
Time For Action
Olympic is Coming
The Olympic Chang Us
(Third five speeches part of the group entitled "We Meet in Being Jing 2008")

Almost every speech mentioned the motto of the 2008 Olympics: A green, high-tech, people's Olympics. There was a clear emphasis on the "green" aspect of the Olympics, and many contestants called on other students to be more responsible when it came to throwing away garbage, turning out the lights, and recycling plastic bottles.

The frequent mention of the environment is pertinent on a number of levels. Perhaps the most positive sign is that people on a micro in Western Sichuan are beginning to really pay attention to the environment and understand some of the ways to improve the increasingly moribund environmental situation in China.

I think it's easy for the environment to be targeted in China because the problem and solution are easily laid on the shoulders of the people, rather than a centralized authority. One can blame themselves or their peers much more easily for the ruined environment than the government or a governmental policy. Chinese people certainly has no lack of history when it comes to targeting
their peers when they think they've done anything wrong...

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

plazas

Met Ting Ting for dinner yesterday. I wish I could take some pictures but my camera is still MIA. If it's not here by this weekend I'll get another one, as the Nanchong contingent will be hitting up Chengdu again to visit Sarah in the hospital. I need to have one for the loud party. Absolutely necessary.

Anyway, before dinner, I suggested walking around Bei Hu park. My suggestion was apparently ridiculous for a person like myself to make, and she called me an old man. I remember back in Chile when going to the plaza de armas or somewhere in Santiago or Talagante was cool. People went there just to walk around or hang out. If anything, the central plaza was a place for young people to meet or hold some celebrations during various festivals; not an activity restricted to old folk.

The loud party is next weekend the 19th. People advised to wear their loudest, craziest costumes. Anything you would never wear on a daily basis is acceptable. People not wearing costumes will not be admitted. It will be the greatest party we've had so far. More later.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

My kid could paint that

Just finished watching My Kid Could Paint That. An interesting documentary. Starts out really optimistic, but it's pretty clear that by the end the film maker realizes the whole thing is some varying degree of fraud. It doesn't go as deep as I would have liked it to into any definite conclusion, but still a good watch nonetheless for 6 kuai (80 cents).

April Fools

Haha...

I got a text message from Sarah yesterday morning saying:
"I don't think I can go to the club tonight, I'm in the hospital"

And I initially get really worried, what's wrong with her?

Then I realize OH it's April Fool's. She's just joking around. Why else would she mention the fact that she couldn't go the club. Not true.

I send her a message back saying, "I'm coming downtown to see you, which hospital are you at?"

No answer.

I send her another message, "I'm downtown now, where are you?"

At this point I expect her to admit the April Fool's joke and tell me not to come, at which point giving me the win, but she replies finally, "I'm on my way to Chengdu, I need surgery."

I think, So! You want to one up me on this one now? I then answer her, "Are you serious? I'm canceling my classes to come up and make sure you're ok." This will get her now! She'll have to admit the joke.

She sends me a message back, "I'm at Hua Xi hospital near Aaron's school."

I answer her, "I'll be there in three hours, can I bring you anything?"

She replies, "Thanks. Maybe a book or something."

So at this point I've also told Ashley about what's happening and she agrees that Sarah's just joking around. We decide that Ashley is going to call Sarah from a public phone and pretend to be the Peace Corps medical officer and ask Sarah what's wrong in order to get her to admit that it's a joke. Ashley and I figure it's the knockout punch we need to end this.

Ashley calls Sarah on her cell phone and they begin talking. Ashley's voice is dead on and I can't help but laughing. She keeps her cool pretty well though; definitely believable. Ashley asks Sarah who's at the hospital with her. Sarah says that Dr. Gao and Dr. Jo (the PC medical officer) are with her. Ok, so we figure the gig is up and that Sarah probably knew it was Ashley. We conclude that there's no way though that Dr. Jo was with Sarah at that moment though.

Ashley decides she's going to call Durf and just make sure everything's ok. I say goodbye to her and go back to my house for a pre-class xiu xi. I get a phone call a few minutes later from Ashley explaining that Sarah's in Chengdu and is going to get some surgery done within the next couple days. Durf is surprised that we have not left for Chengdu yet.

Oops.

We're going on Friday morning to see her.

unblocked!

Blogspot's finally been unblocked and I'm able to post again. For the longest time I was unable to get into blogspot AND blogger. Since coming to China I'd been able to get into blogger (which allowed me to post but not see the blog), but not into blogspot. Since January or so access to both had been restricted. Anyway, here's the first post in a long time.

Just got back from dinner and KTV with a couple people I met at McDonald's at 1:30 last Friday. It was a weird initial encounter at McDonald's. Our usual group (Sarah, Durf, Xiao Zhao, Jason) and I were hitting up a post game run. While I was ordering I noticed a guy next to me looking at me uncomfortably. He would tilt is head over quite conspicuously and then glance back at the menu on the counter when I looked back over at him. Usually when people do this they want to ask a question and it's a good sign for me to start a conversation.

At this point in time though it was a tad bit late, and I was tired and not in the best of states. I normally engage anyone who gives me the curious glance-over, but at 1:30 in McDonald's after going to Tian Shang, I just wanted some food and a bed. I knew it was inevitable; people that do the glance-over more than twice usually have a high level of curiosity and will probably not let you go without asking some questions in simple Chinglish.

It started with the typical "Where are you come from?" Before I could answer I made my order and the guy was absolutely amazed I spoke Chinese. Now don't get me wrong, I'm confident about my Chinese now, especially when it comes to small talk, but I'll reiterate that 1:30 at McDonald's after Tian Shang made me feel shaky. We started to have a conversation then about what I was doing here and how much money I made etc.. All the usuals.

Enter cute girl and other guy. After ordering and answering a few of glance guy's questions, a quite attractive girl and some other guy also came up and decided to ask their own series of questions. So there I was, in a circle of Chinese people at 1:30 AM after coming from Tian Shang, and suddenly I had to kick up my brain into professional-Peace Corps conversation mode. Eventually I was asked for my phone number, at which point it occurred to me that I should probably give these people a fake number, except that cute girl was pretty cute, and all three of them weren't obnoxious or anything, so I decided to stick to the real one.

Anyway, cute girl called me on Monday and asked me if I had any free time, so I told her Wednesday I did. To tell you the truth, I actually didn't remember exactly what she looked like, except I'd put some money on the fact that she was probably Chinese. Anyway, we decided to meet at the McDonald's again. --Would this be another medium number six???-- I met her and she assumed I wanted to go to McDonald's to dine on fine American cuisine. I asked her if she wouldn't mind going to Yi Dian Wei, one of the nicer restaurants in Nanchong that serves some interesting Chinese-style dishes with some Japanese/American ingredients (I think...) Anyway, she was down. I almost went into McDonald's and got the medium number six for nostalgia sake, but I thought better of it.

The meal wasn't bad. I had thought it would be awkward, and actually I had half expected our meeting to be a repeat of when a girl called me and it turned out to be a 11-year-old, but it was cool. Got the usual bullshit out of the way first, then just joked around. It reminded me a lot of Chile in a way, going to a restaurant with some random person and speaking only a few words in English. Halfway through eating at Yi Dian Wei, other guy from McDonald's came and sat down with us. Turns out the guy wasn't her boyfriend as I had initially thought, but a close friend. She referred to him as "Xiao Di Di". Xiao Di Di is actually a slang word for penis, so when I explained why I had started laughing, they also thought it was quite funny...

After dinner, they had planned to go to other guy's friend's birthday party at a KTV joint near Wu Xing. Haha, I should say again that I have probably spent less than thirty minutes with these people all together, but yet it seemed perfectly natural for me to go with them to other guy's friend's birthday party. Why not? First we stopped over at Hao Li and picked up a cake for the friend. The full cake was ready in about ten minutes from ordering to leaving. Icing, message, decorations on top.. everything in ten minutes. I remember having to wait a day or so to order a cake in the US...

So we got to KTV and went in the room. Initial surprise of the foreigner is clearly visible. People are shy and awkward, some not making eye contact at first. Cute girl (Ting Ting) instructs me to sit down. I stand and greet everyone then take a seat. I hear people asking if I can speak Chinese and what I'm doing here. (That second question is actually quite legitimate, probably couldn't answer it myself). I get some phone call from my counterpart teacher saying there was a basketball game tomorrow. Oops, I got class. Can't go! (What a bummer... not!) Ok, thanks for letting me know. (Why couldn't she let me know about the Bolivian ambassador coming? THANKS Xi Hua Wai Ban...). Get back into the KTV room, toast a few times. Instructed not to drink so much. Instruct cute girl that a few mini glasses isn't much. Initial surprise has for the most part dimished. Offered cigarette. Turned down. Cute girl toasts me with Pepsi; she doesn't drink. People passing around a clear glass plate with stuff (yeah you all know what it is) on top. Cute girl says I don't want any, says that stuff is bad. Stand up to answer another phone call from counterpart. Told when every future basketball game is. Return to KTV room. Sing Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin with cute girl. Few claps. I go to bathroom, come back. Outside of the door, cute girl explains she wants to go. I say it's ok, we haven't been here that long. People come out of the KTV room and ask what's going on. Cute girl says I want to go. I think WTF? She says we'll dance for a little bit, then leave. We get back into the KTV room and two guys have taken their shirt off and the strobe light is on. Cute girl gives me evil eye for some reason. I ask her if she wants to go. We dance for two minutes then exit. Other guy comes also. Where to?

We hit up McDonald's as the only open place we can sit down and chill. It's around 11:00 at this point. I offer to pay for McDonald's as it's the equivalent of the American embassy. I'm not sure if they understood the analogy, but I'm denied anyway AGAIN. We sit around and talk for 45 minutes and then leave. They come with me back to Xi Hua (for who knows what reason) and pay for the entire taxi to my door.

A fun time...

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

thinking back

I was recently going through these old pictures from Chile in 2005 and I stumbled across one that was taken of Karina, myself, and some morning TV host that did a brief show at estacion central. You had to eat some CRAZY food that wasn't revealed to you until after, and hesitantly I took a bite. It ended up being silk worms, but in retrospect, after being in China, there's nothing I wouldn't eat. Hell, silk worms dipped in la jiao sauce are appetizers here. I've had pig brain, cow stomach, duck intestine, just to name a few (countless times). Silk worms?? Don't make me laugh, Chile...

Meanwhile in Nanchong, we've recently become stars at the new local club Tian Shang Ren Jian (a piece of heaven). We're pampered and attention is lavished on us by the staff. Oh, but how can we ever repay them for such a service? We dance around on the lighted stage for ten minutes, then return to the bar and resume being pampered. It's a tough, tough life.

It's actually quite fun doing this. Certainly being the center of the club isn't something most people are accustomed to. Chinese people can't dance as well as those in Latin America, and most of my moves, moves which I predominantly learned when going to "el establo" or "calle suecia" or "providencia" in Santiago have paid off innumerably. I've really discovered there are only a two kind of Chinese dance moves:

-The circle: The circle isn't bad. I shouldn't badmouth the circle. It's just when a few people hold hands and awkwardly raise their hands up and down not even in sync with the rhythm, it can get old quite fast. It's incredibly popular though, perhaps because you're there with your friends and no one is really sure what to do or how to act.
-The rock: I think the rock is perhaps most popular with the girls. I see a few guys doing it occasionally, but the rock is much more common with the female clubbers. It basically entails a girl with hands clenched, arms unextended, head shaking back and forth, hips moving ever so slightly. If you can imagine one of those boxing puppets that kids play with just sort of jerking from side to side, you've got the rock.
-The punch: The punch is the rock's younger sibling. It's the same body stance as the rock with fists clenched, but instead of keeping the arms stationary, they extend outwards in a punching motion. It's not a full punch either, it's just a casual half-uppercut. Right hand goes out on the up beat, left on the down beat and so on.

The whole club scene is different to begin with, too. I mean most people in the US go to the club to meet new people, have some drinks, etc... In China, the club is a place you go with some close friends, largely stick to yourself, most likely not dance, and leave before 12:00. Now, I should mention this is Nanchong, Sichuan province, not Shanghai. It's even different in Chengdu where clubs stay open until 4 or 5:00. It's not uncommon though here to see a group of guys sleeping on the couches or looking bored while observing the other people. I think KTV is still the predominant choice in terms of late night entertainment where you go with a small group of friends and get a private room where socialization with the unknown is kept to a minimum. With the birth of Tian Shang Ren Jian, the club scene in Eastern Sichuan takes a dramatic step in the right direction. Or perhaps it's westernization that's taking a step forward... Whether or not it's in the right direction is up for debate. I believe it is...

Monday, January 14, 2008

exams

It's exam time here. I never really noticed it until this semester but in all of the trash cans around campus there are these super tiny slips of paper, maybe one inch by one half of an inch long. The Chinese characters written on the paper are tinier than I can even describe. I tried taking some pictures of the ones I found around the teaching building, but they don't do it justice. I definitely couldn't write English this small. Some good cheaters out here...