Once again, Gentle Reader, please forgive your foppish author for his negligence, he should be flogged at dawn with the braided whiskers of a thousand cranky old men as the maidens churn butter and the drunkards stumble home after a full days work! Being in China, constantly learning, Teaching; all of it is very draining. Good, but draining. However, I have a long stretch of days coming off and should be able to catch up soon. I am tempted to record here my dream from last night, but lets just say that it was very strange: I was in a mall and I caught a case of the 24 hour vampire flew from Dan Conner( John Goodman) and we just sat down and played cards as we knew it was going to hit soon. There was a homeless guy laying next to us and i said "buddy, you might want to find somewhere to sleep because in a hour or so, this is not going to be the best place to nap..." It was actually weirder than that, but that was the most coherent part!
So onto the Chronology... My Chinese apartment. Ed and I checked the apartment and everything was good except there was no water going to my toilet or bathroom sink (turned out the water was not turned on to the toilet, still not sure what is up with the sink , but it does not matter for reason that will soon be clear). I have been lucky in that i have had very few problems with my apartment, as other teachers have had problems with water and other things. I like my apartment. It is on Ba yi Lu (8.1 road), a very booming city street/ neighborhood. I live a block from the main street, and mostly everything i want is with a short walk: tons of stores, restaurants, the bus line, markets, supermarkets, Internet cafes. The rest of the city is a short bus ride or cab ride away, such as the main office of the company, the massive downtown area, my schools, etc. As mentioned before, Dalian is very urban and modern, it has Zoos, more shopping and restaurants than you can imagine, malls, bookstores, beaches, museums, an amusement park and more... A thousand different types of clubs and bars, from local to German, American, Irish and more( and don't forget the hooker bars!). Dives and upscale. There are many public parks. Vendors everywhere, selling fruit, belts, magazines, maps, spoons, you name it!( probably the only thing you can't buy in this city is a gun!) I have missed living in a city and this is a city! My urban nature is very happy here. It's not the china that you probably imagine, its like living in Pittsburgh but its much bigger and everyone is Chinese and has slightly better accents! Not to say that its exactly like an American city, but its much closer than you probably think. Well, more on the city later...
My apartment. It looks like an apartment in the states. Its in a big block looking building surrounded by other big, block looking buildings. I am lucky enough( well in many ways) to live on the first floor. My door is like the door to safe ( there is even a combo lock that i never use!); It has seven dead bolts and is solid steal. China has a theft problem, but i don't worry about my apartment, no one is getting thought that door. I have two big windows, but the bar cages outside of them are impenetrable. Its a little like a jail cell in that manner, but I would rather not worry about some Chinese guy taking my crap and selling it on some rug on the sidewalk. I can hear the noises from the street which makes the city boy in me very happy; I find it relaxing. people do walk pass my windows chanting all of the time, they are looking for work( fixing things) selling things or asking for recycles( the garbage collection system in china is very...different). Sometimes i want to throw stuff at them, but for the most part they just add local color. My apartment has a medium sized dining room/ living room area, which has a big table, a fridge, a water cooler( you don't drink the faucet water in china) and a small stool. Its not really big enough for anything else, but it is roomy the way that it is. There is a sliding blue glass door to the kitchen, which has cabinets, a sink and not much else. again, roomy enough for my purposes. There seem to be not many stoves in china. I have one gas burner connected to a gas hookup like in Chemistry class and a wok( i bought a Pot to boil dumplings and will by a pan soon).
I have a electric kettle to boil water to drink and make soup ( the Raman in china is fantastic and comes in a variety of flavors). The Kitchen is meager by U.S standards, but enough for me. The Fridge, in the dining room, is small, but serves my purposes. The bathroom in also connected to the dining room. I thought this was the strangest part. There is a small washing machine ( no hot water for the washing machine and no dryer-- I have a clothes rack and also uses the large cage bars on the windows to hang clothes). the bathroom is small but not as small as some in the US. there is a sink that does not work. next to sink is the shower ( no tub). this was the wierdest part to me: the shower is just a handheld shower connected to a hot water tank right under the ceiling. No glass, no curtain, you just stand next to window( you can't see in) and spray essentially in the middle of the room. This is pretty different than what we are used to, but it works. there is a drain between the sink and the toilet, and the water goes in there. This is pretty standard in china. So you take a shower in the middle of the bathroom. You get used to it. My water pressure is good and the hot water heater is good. You have to watch your TP from getting wet but the system works! The drain does stink a bit, it always smells a little sewery, but i am used to it by now. For China, this is a pretty nice apartment , and i am pretty happy with it. the Bedroom is big, with a king size bed, a wardrobe, two drawers table thingies and a dresser kind of thing. oh and a televising and a phone. The Internet was not connected when i first got here, so more on that later. I don't watch TV much, although it is amusing and all Chinese( although you can pay for HBO and some American channels) as i have been reading, writing and doing school stuff much more. The mattress is very Chinese (hard as a rock, they believe that it is better for you) and takes some getting used to, which i have. There is not curtain in the kitchen and since i have to walk ther to get to bathroom and sometimes the bedroom curtains, I have probably given the neighbors a free show that they wish that they haven't seen!
All in all, its a bit different, but i love my little apartment. My landlord and neighbors don't bother me( a plus), its in a busy part of the city, and i am alone... which i have wanted for a very long time now. Oh, the company pays the rent! I have to pay electric, gas, water, cable, phone, Internet and gas, which are not much when compared to bills in America. Like i said, i am happy here....
so i will continue with the chronology soon, and hopefully get to some funny stories...
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Chronology part II: titanium cupie dolls in a moving scene and the motto of this blog- anything can change at any time!
So, i am sorry if i have not been posting much. This week was a bit rough. I am still working out the kinks of teaching, and i have been very tired. Today marks my first month in China. It is very hard to grasp that, as time has gone so fast, and i still have very much to learn! This week has not been the greatest week for me, as it is very hot and muggy, and i am still trying to learn how to be a teacher. I have also had some minor personal problems. but everything is OK... However, you will have dips in mood and luck, that is life anywhere. I still love china!
So the long awaited continuation of the Chronology. I stopped with the arriving in Dalian. When i arrived, i was put into a crowded hallway that was essentially a shoot( in the cattle sense, not the wrestling sense!). I was a little shocked at the amount of people. This was my first taste of the fact that everything in Dalian is usually crowded as hell; you get used to it. Then i got my luggage, in which people would just push you out of the way. I thought that this was isolated, but it is another part of china. I will probably discuss this further very soon. I was extremely tired from the long plane ride. At the gate waiting for me was Ed and April. Ed is an American teacher from Indiana. In his twenties, but very level headed and cool. He is an interesting mix; He loves to drink, and is very laid back, but still is very responsible and gets things done. He works for the company as the Human resource director or some such thing. He teaches also, but he helps us with many things that are part of getting used to being in china. I have ( and still do) call) called Ed with the most ridiculous questions and he never gets annoyed. April is Chinese and also does similar things. The Chinese staff are all very hard working and help us out alot. They work very long days and often weekends and are payed relatively little. They are all very nice and helpful. They all speak some English, and some speak very well... although language can be a problem sometimes. However, they have to look after eight teachers here, plus others in other cities and also various other programs that the company runs. They do an amazing job. April does alot to make sure that we are legal, happy and safe, as do all of the others in the company. I really like April, btw, but i think she is taking some time warming up to me, which is the usual case.... Ed and i get along really well, i think.
Anyhoo, so they have a sign for me, which is good because it was just starting to dawn on me that i was in a foriegn city and would have no way to know what to do if i could not find them. They were waiting for another teacher, Stephanie, who did not show up, her plane was detoured due to a hurricane somewhere in Asia and she ended up staying in a hotel in Seol or Hong Kong, i forget which. we waited for her for awhile and then figured out that she was not coming. We left the airport when Jonah showed up. Jonah is the boss of this branch of the company( There's a head boss, Frank, but i rarely see him) and she is a true entity. A Chinese fashionista, a very hard working business woman, and a strong Chinese woman, she is like an American businessmen put in the body of a Chinese playboy bunny! Amazingly pretty, sexy and charming, she has also focused that Chinese will and ability to get things done, in other words, while she is nice and looks like a doll, she is not the lady to fuck with! That is kind of a vague cliche, but its the closest i can come at this point. We leave the airport and cross the street. Now, this does not seem like an important event, but it was! They just walked between moving cars while I waited for cars to stop. Cars in china rarely stop. I have a whole entry that I want to devote to this one subject. Eventually, Ed helped me cross the street and we got into the car. I don't remember much of the details because i was getting sleepy again. I remember going through the city like it was a series of tunnels. I tried to get an overall impression of it but i could not. Ed said many important things, but most of them did not register really. We got to my apartment. Oh, it should be stated that until i talked to ed I was under the impression that i was going to be sent to another city. My first choice was Dalian, simply because Xiarou had talked it up so much, and i was sad to simply be training there. Well, the first lesson that i learned in China is that anything can change at any moment. I was told that I was going to stay in Dalian and that i had an apartment waiting me. I was very happy about that. When we got to the apartment, I took my bags in. I will continue this tomorrow....
So the long awaited continuation of the Chronology. I stopped with the arriving in Dalian. When i arrived, i was put into a crowded hallway that was essentially a shoot( in the cattle sense, not the wrestling sense!). I was a little shocked at the amount of people. This was my first taste of the fact that everything in Dalian is usually crowded as hell; you get used to it. Then i got my luggage, in which people would just push you out of the way. I thought that this was isolated, but it is another part of china. I will probably discuss this further very soon. I was extremely tired from the long plane ride. At the gate waiting for me was Ed and April. Ed is an American teacher from Indiana. In his twenties, but very level headed and cool. He is an interesting mix; He loves to drink, and is very laid back, but still is very responsible and gets things done. He works for the company as the Human resource director or some such thing. He teaches also, but he helps us with many things that are part of getting used to being in china. I have ( and still do) call) called Ed with the most ridiculous questions and he never gets annoyed. April is Chinese and also does similar things. The Chinese staff are all very hard working and help us out alot. They work very long days and often weekends and are payed relatively little. They are all very nice and helpful. They all speak some English, and some speak very well... although language can be a problem sometimes. However, they have to look after eight teachers here, plus others in other cities and also various other programs that the company runs. They do an amazing job. April does alot to make sure that we are legal, happy and safe, as do all of the others in the company. I really like April, btw, but i think she is taking some time warming up to me, which is the usual case.... Ed and i get along really well, i think.
Anyhoo, so they have a sign for me, which is good because it was just starting to dawn on me that i was in a foriegn city and would have no way to know what to do if i could not find them. They were waiting for another teacher, Stephanie, who did not show up, her plane was detoured due to a hurricane somewhere in Asia and she ended up staying in a hotel in Seol or Hong Kong, i forget which. we waited for her for awhile and then figured out that she was not coming. We left the airport when Jonah showed up. Jonah is the boss of this branch of the company( There's a head boss, Frank, but i rarely see him) and she is a true entity. A Chinese fashionista, a very hard working business woman, and a strong Chinese woman, she is like an American businessmen put in the body of a Chinese playboy bunny! Amazingly pretty, sexy and charming, she has also focused that Chinese will and ability to get things done, in other words, while she is nice and looks like a doll, she is not the lady to fuck with! That is kind of a vague cliche, but its the closest i can come at this point. We leave the airport and cross the street. Now, this does not seem like an important event, but it was! They just walked between moving cars while I waited for cars to stop. Cars in china rarely stop. I have a whole entry that I want to devote to this one subject. Eventually, Ed helped me cross the street and we got into the car. I don't remember much of the details because i was getting sleepy again. I remember going through the city like it was a series of tunnels. I tried to get an overall impression of it but i could not. Ed said many important things, but most of them did not register really. We got to my apartment. Oh, it should be stated that until i talked to ed I was under the impression that i was going to be sent to another city. My first choice was Dalian, simply because Xiarou had talked it up so much, and i was sad to simply be training there. Well, the first lesson that i learned in China is that anything can change at any moment. I was told that I was going to stay in Dalian and that i had an apartment waiting me. I was very happy about that. When we got to the apartment, I took my bags in. I will continue this tomorrow....
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Weekend:ClubLove,oldmanassonthebeach,englishcorner,andGermanyinChinese
(disclaimer-- all the pictures used on this site where ripped off from google images as I was too dumb to invest in a camera. well, hopefully soon... You can click on them to get a better view)
My three day weekend was pretty eventful. Today was tied up in teaching and trying to figure out how to use a international phone card( i did not succeed). The corporate bureaucracy in china can get a bit brutal. That being said, this weekend was good...
I have already described the concert for Mid Autumn festival on Saturday. On Sunday, I went to English Corner as I always do. English Corner is held in Zoogshan Square, which is the pictured in the last two images ( the buildings around the park are pretty cool too). I have not mentioned muchabout the city, as was pointed out by my father, but i plan to. For now, It's a very modern city with much to do. Its similar to an American City, but with a Chinese flavor. As I said, more to come about Dalian( which leads me to a digression: there is so much to write about that I am waiting for the right time to do so). Anyhoo, Zoogshan park is small, but very nice and clean. The center part is kind of a raised circle which they let kids roller blade on! Ironically enough, you are not allowed on the grass! The park is in the center of the city and is very popular: The Chinese take full advantage of their many parks. On Sundays, this park hosts English Corner, which is very informal( meaning if you want to participate, you just show up and start talking). English speakers( unfortunately, not very many lately) come and the Chinese who can speak English talk to them. For the Chinese, it's a chance to practice their English and meet someone from a ëxotic"country ( and some of their ideas about America are pretty interesting). For myself, it's a vital activity that allows me to actually converse and form bonds with the people from the city that i live in. English speaking does not happen very much outside of school and the Corner, so this is a chance for me get to know the people that I am surrounded by. While Chinese children must learn English in school, and they start very young, its still not commonly spoken in the city. So i get some attention and also get to not feel like a complete idiot who cannot speak with anyone. And I love the people at the Corner dearly. The Chinese are a very friendly, curious, interesting people. As soon as I show up, I am mobbed by people who surround me and ask questions. And they Ask about everything: America, Politics, Economics, My personal life, am I married, Movies, books,drugs, race relations, language, Education... everything. They are very polite, but they áre not afraid to ask a question! One of my favorites is a ten year old named Fairy, who speaks nearly native level English and is very cute and precocious( she always brings me a gift) Fairy speaks Chinese of course, English, and some Japanese( she calls me Sensei sometimes!) The children are very cute. Everyone wants to ask questions. English is considered a very valuable skill in China, so they like to practice. I will undoubtedly talk more about the Corner in this blog, but that's enough background for now.
While I was at the corner, a teacher who is my handler in one of my schools( makes sure that I don't get lost, find classes, ect.) came to take me dinner as per our previously discussed plans. Her Husband, her son ( the biggest five year old that i have ever seen) and her took me to a Chinese Version of a German Beerhall! I truly wish that I had pictures of the chinese waiter boys in linderhosen! They( the teacher and her husband) were so very nice and insisted on treating me. The place was a buffet and must have been expensive because I ate so much food( and especially German style meat) that i nearly puked! It was huge and the linderhosen boys kept coming and cutting off different meats with giant ass knifes of of these big racks. Waitresses dressed kind of like Amish women brought us big mugs of dark beer brewed on site! It was a very cool place and the teacher( ms. Su) and her husband were very kind and generous. Her husband works for a company that builds ships and was a very interesting guy.
So i met Winston at the corner again and talked to some more Chinese. We eventually met Ryan and Miles( incidentally, Miles is from Monongahela Pa, right down the road where i grew up and went to a Chinese night club, Club Love.A club is a club, and i usually loathe them, but it had that relaxed Chinese vibe( the clubbers, not the staff. the Chinese take making money extremely seriously and business like). Full of pretty girls, i had a few drinks and left, as I am in love with a Chinese girl already and don't think that I can handle more than one( joking, Yipin!). There were breakdancers and club dancers. it was fun. they dropped confetti from the ceiling, played American hip hoppish type music and it was a fun time. Again, not really my scene, but still cool. Many Russians, and there seems to be a instant dislike between Russians and Americans in china. I don't know why, and it's unfortunate because they seem to outnumber us by like a hundred or so to one! There are many Russians in Dalian, and very few Americans.
The next day, Winston and I went to the beach, which is like five minutes away from my apartment! it was nice and the pictures above where taken at the same beach we were at. I love to see the Chinese having fun and they were. The only thing bad about the beach was that there were hardly any girls in bathing suits. Unfortunately for Winston and me, there was an army of older Chinese guys in Speedos. I have seen too many wrinkled old Chinese male asses! There are cliffs you can walk on, and the islands in the picture are beautiful. The water was clean and the beach, while rocky was nice. We had a good time. Winston almost got picked up by Fat Middle aged Russian lady, but managed to escape( ladies love Him, Chinese too).
Well, that is all for now. So much to write about. I will continue this soon...
Saturday, September 13, 2008
MooncakesandtraditionalMusic
Today marks the beginning of The Mid-Autumn Festival. It's a big deal here in China. I have lifted this from my Chinese friend Susan Guan's Facebook page because she explains it much better than i could:
The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節, zhōng qiū jié), also known as the Moon Festival, is a popular East Asian celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China's Zhou Dynasty.[dubious – discuss] In Malaysia and Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival. The Chinese Lantern Festival is held on the 15th day of the first lunar month.The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian calendar), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. This is the ideal time, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar (the other being the Chinese Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as:
Eating moon cakes outside under the moon Putting pomelo rinds on one's head Carrying brightly lit lanterns Burning incense in reverence to deities including Chang'e Planting Mid-Autumn trees Collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members Lighting lanterns on towers Fire Dragon Dances Shops selling mooncakes, before the festival, often display pictures of Chang'e floating to the moon.
Thanks to Susan for that. Due to the Holiday, I am off on Monday (no school), YaY!
Tonight, as part of the celebration, the Dalian Government invited many of us foreign experts""( teachers and businessmen) to a concert featuring the Dalian Philharmonic. The Orchestra used traditional Chinese instruments. It was a nice sampling of Chinese culture; they did classics and also sampled some Chinese Opera. It was a entertaining and illuminating experience. The mayor of the city was there. so i kind of felt a little like a bigshot. but the best part was the music, which was pretty good. very different. I am starting to like some Chinese music, although most of the American influenced pop sucks, if you ask me.
A big part of this festival are moon cakes. moon cakes are very ornate looking, but can be filled with many thing ( Jessica likes egg yokes and egg whites, i have heard of meat ones, Winston had an apple one that he did not like). The Chinese seem to love these things; most westerners don't . However, they are a big part of this culturally significant holiday.
ok, hopefully tommorrow i will continue with the chonology, but it's also English Corner day, so I will probably talk about that...
A fellow teacher, Ryan, sent me the following link. It's Japanese, but still very simular and awesome. check it out:
Friday, September 12, 2008
iforgotaboutthebadmitton(sp)andthekindnessofthechinese
In my list of strange things that the Chinese (and there is more of this to come), I forgot about the national obsession with badmitton( sp?). the game like tennis. You see it everywhere, they even do these jazzercise exercises with the raquets. You really haven't lived untill you have seen 40 older chinese all in synch with raquets. It's pretty awesome. I have seen them playing the game in classrooms, in front of stores, on the street, pretty much everywhere. They seldom use nets, if ever. They love it!
Youhome is a giant supermarket by where I live( ba yi lu- 8 1 street). Youhome has two floors, the first floor is like a k-mart or something, the second is all grocery. You can take your cart up to the second floor by escalator( it's flat, no steps, just an inclined ramp). Youhome has alot of stuff. They have American style stuff like cookies and chips( although the potato chips in China come in all kind of crazy flavors- steak, baked potato, tommatoo, duck, you name it). they have big ass catfish in tanks, they have roasted chicken, chicken heads, chicken feet, you name it chicken. One thing about chinese stores, is that they have maybe 2 or three girls in any given section to help you make your selection. Usually, they just point you to the thing that the store wants to sell the mos,. but Youhome is a bit different. Today, Winston and I were there and we got alot of assitance. Many, but not all, Chinese women like to take care of Americans like we were children, especially Winston, who is an African American with corn rows and is the nicest, sweetest guy that I have ever met. There is not any discernable racism against african americans in China becuase there are hardly ever any African Americans in China! If i am a novelty ( and i am) in China, Winston is doubly so. They love his hair and his freindliness( although he has had Chinese argue with him that he is not from America- they think all Americans are rich White people- they told him he was from Africa or Brazil). Anyway, at Youhome, we were looking at yogurt, which is a love I share with the Chinese. So many types of Yogurt, FLavors, pouches, liquid, big containers, small containers, ect. WEll, there was a really cheap deal, and the women at the ailse just looked at us and said no. now, you might think that they were trying to get us to buy a more expensive brand, but i know that they weren't . The brand that i got was slightly more expensive, but not much more. That yogurt was probably bad, and they were looking out for us. Chinese grocery stores are not above selling bad yogurt, which is probably why it was such a good deal. Later, i was looking at dumplings. I picked out a bag that looked good. A youhome worker came over and stopped me. I thought, jesus, she's not going to let me get this( becuase they can be a pain in the ass sometimes) and she reached over and grabbed another bag that had a give away bad ass apron tied to it. I explained ( without language) that i did not want that flavor, so she took off the apron from the bag it was on and tied it to my bag! then i had to buy a pot to cook my dumplings in. A youhome lady came over and inspected the box, making sure that the pot was in the box. you might think that this is store policy, but i don't think it is. poeple who run businesses in China will do anything to make a buck. they will oversell, rip you off, sell you bad products, whatever. You have to be careful. but the youhome ladies will help a brother out, becuase in their eyes, we americans are like children.
The women at the office i work at are like that, but they will kill you with kindness. So are many of the older teachers; i have to tell them that i am ok eating with chopsticks, no, i don't need special western food, please let me wash my tray like every other teacher, no, i don't need you to walk me to the bus becuase i am 38 years old. A few times, some street vendor has tried to rip off one of us americans( it's ok, becuase all americans are rich beyond belief, they think) and some lady will pop up out of nowhere and give them hell and take us away! The Chinese lady is a great thing (however, if the lady is a vendor, the situation is quite different). In general, the chinese are a very kind, gentle people. That being said, there are many who will rip you off or steal from you. Violent crime is almost non-existent, but thievery very, very common. But, i have encountered many kind Chinese who counter the thieves in my eyes.
Ok, so tommorrow will be part two of the long promised chronology....
Youhome is a giant supermarket by where I live( ba yi lu- 8 1 street). Youhome has two floors, the first floor is like a k-mart or something, the second is all grocery. You can take your cart up to the second floor by escalator( it's flat, no steps, just an inclined ramp). Youhome has alot of stuff. They have American style stuff like cookies and chips( although the potato chips in China come in all kind of crazy flavors- steak, baked potato, tommatoo, duck, you name it). they have big ass catfish in tanks, they have roasted chicken, chicken heads, chicken feet, you name it chicken. One thing about chinese stores, is that they have maybe 2 or three girls in any given section to help you make your selection. Usually, they just point you to the thing that the store wants to sell the mos,. but Youhome is a bit different. Today, Winston and I were there and we got alot of assitance. Many, but not all, Chinese women like to take care of Americans like we were children, especially Winston, who is an African American with corn rows and is the nicest, sweetest guy that I have ever met. There is not any discernable racism against african americans in China becuase there are hardly ever any African Americans in China! If i am a novelty ( and i am) in China, Winston is doubly so. They love his hair and his freindliness( although he has had Chinese argue with him that he is not from America- they think all Americans are rich White people- they told him he was from Africa or Brazil). Anyway, at Youhome, we were looking at yogurt, which is a love I share with the Chinese. So many types of Yogurt, FLavors, pouches, liquid, big containers, small containers, ect. WEll, there was a really cheap deal, and the women at the ailse just looked at us and said no. now, you might think that they were trying to get us to buy a more expensive brand, but i know that they weren't . The brand that i got was slightly more expensive, but not much more. That yogurt was probably bad, and they were looking out for us. Chinese grocery stores are not above selling bad yogurt, which is probably why it was such a good deal. Later, i was looking at dumplings. I picked out a bag that looked good. A youhome worker came over and stopped me. I thought, jesus, she's not going to let me get this( becuase they can be a pain in the ass sometimes) and she reached over and grabbed another bag that had a give away bad ass apron tied to it. I explained ( without language) that i did not want that flavor, so she took off the apron from the bag it was on and tied it to my bag! then i had to buy a pot to cook my dumplings in. A youhome lady came over and inspected the box, making sure that the pot was in the box. you might think that this is store policy, but i don't think it is. poeple who run businesses in China will do anything to make a buck. they will oversell, rip you off, sell you bad products, whatever. You have to be careful. but the youhome ladies will help a brother out, becuase in their eyes, we americans are like children.
The women at the office i work at are like that, but they will kill you with kindness. So are many of the older teachers; i have to tell them that i am ok eating with chopsticks, no, i don't need special western food, please let me wash my tray like every other teacher, no, i don't need you to walk me to the bus becuase i am 38 years old. A few times, some street vendor has tried to rip off one of us americans( it's ok, becuase all americans are rich beyond belief, they think) and some lady will pop up out of nowhere and give them hell and take us away! The Chinese lady is a great thing (however, if the lady is a vendor, the situation is quite different). In general, the chinese are a very kind, gentle people. That being said, there are many who will rip you off or steal from you. Violent crime is almost non-existent, but thievery very, very common. But, i have encountered many kind Chinese who counter the thieves in my eyes.
Ok, so tommorrow will be part two of the long promised chronology....
PrisonBreak,KFCandspiderman
ok, later tonight i will continue with my chronological telling of my adventures in China. By the way, today marks my third week in China! I have a three day weekend coming up due to Mid Aumtumn festival. This Holiday seems to be distinguished by the giving of what they call Mooncakes, which are little pastries that have a variety of fillings in them, from apple to egg yoke to meat. The Chinese will eat anything: neck, feet, ears and eyes, chicken heads,brains. Most of what I have seen is pretty good though, vegatables and regular meat.
The Chinese are crazy about the american show Prison Break, although I am not sure why. I think that it has been translated and imported on DVD. All of my students ask me about it, and of course they think I look like one of the guys, a Villian of course ( paradoxically enough, they also think that fellow teacher Ed looks like the same guy- Ed is much better looking then I am!). I have never seen the show, to me its just another american show. but they love it. They also love KFC. KFC is everythwhere here. The menu is pretty much the same, except they have one item that is essentially tofu and chicken on a stick. They also love Mcdonalds.
I finished up the name excercise at the public schools yesterday. The only good name was Spiderman. I think that this kid may be the real thing. He knew that Spiderman's real name is Peter Parker ( although one could argue that the real spiderman would never give out his secreat identity- although he sort of did in the comics recently, only to have it "taken back")! They are very sweet kids.
As I said, I will later continue with my telling of my adventures. Also, pretty soon, I would like to talk about Prostitutes! I am trying to keep this thing up to date, but my work schedule is very full. I teach at threee different schools, I have 26 classes a week and around 265 students! So forgive me if i a tuckered out sometimes. also, there is a comment application on this blog. please leave comments if you wish, i will be very excited to read them!
Patrick
The Chinese are crazy about the american show Prison Break, although I am not sure why. I think that it has been translated and imported on DVD. All of my students ask me about it, and of course they think I look like one of the guys, a Villian of course ( paradoxically enough, they also think that fellow teacher Ed looks like the same guy- Ed is much better looking then I am!). I have never seen the show, to me its just another american show. but they love it. They also love KFC. KFC is everythwhere here. The menu is pretty much the same, except they have one item that is essentially tofu and chicken on a stick. They also love Mcdonalds.
I finished up the name excercise at the public schools yesterday. The only good name was Spiderman. I think that this kid may be the real thing. He knew that Spiderman's real name is Peter Parker ( although one could argue that the real spiderman would never give out his secreat identity- although he sort of did in the comics recently, only to have it "taken back")! They are very sweet kids.
As I said, I will later continue with my telling of my adventures. Also, pretty soon, I would like to talk about Prostitutes! I am trying to keep this thing up to date, but my work schedule is very full. I teach at threee different schools, I have 26 classes a week and around 265 students! So forgive me if i a tuckered out sometimes. also, there is a comment application on this blog. please leave comments if you wish, i will be very excited to read them!
Patrick
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Teacher'sDay
Today was Teacher's Day in China. In the States, becuase I am 12 hours ahead of all of you, it was my mother's birthday(59). Yay to her! later she would give birth to Steve, but many artiists peak with their first work!
Teacher's day was nice and unexpected. I did know about it, but i did not really know that it would be so nice. Although i had to go in early and cram 5 classes into the morning, I had the afternoon off. The kid's were wonderful and i got some gifts: flowers, fruits, a big ass chocolate bar, and some really good green tea. It was nice. My afternoon off was spent going and getting resident/visa things done. The buerocracy is neverending and brutal, but that's the price of living in China, i guess. I just hope it calms down soon....
I will write more about teaching soon, but for today's lesson we did names. They could use their
Chinese names or English names if they had them. it was actually pretty funny. Many gave their chinese names( I used a small dialouge), but some had English names. The were pretty common for the most part, Tony, Sunny, Alice, David, Jessica, Sarah. Normal names. But some have pretty funny, strange names. I guess they gave them to their selves. I had already met a Fairie at the English Corner( more on that later). I have student''s named (English, not their normal chinese name) Joker(girl), M.C cruiser, Prince, Romeo, Happy, Melon (boy, and i could not stop laughing at his name), Monkey, and some other good ones i forgot. One kid was named David, but I couldn't understand what he was saying and i thought he was saying "stabby",which i thought was a pretty good name...
I will continue the chronological telling of my first weeks in china soon. i am pretty tired right now
Teacher's day was nice and unexpected. I did know about it, but i did not really know that it would be so nice. Although i had to go in early and cram 5 classes into the morning, I had the afternoon off. The kid's were wonderful and i got some gifts: flowers, fruits, a big ass chocolate bar, and some really good green tea. It was nice. My afternoon off was spent going and getting resident/visa things done. The buerocracy is neverending and brutal, but that's the price of living in China, i guess. I just hope it calms down soon....
I will write more about teaching soon, but for today's lesson we did names. They could use their
Chinese names or English names if they had them. it was actually pretty funny. Many gave their chinese names( I used a small dialouge), but some had English names. The were pretty common for the most part, Tony, Sunny, Alice, David, Jessica, Sarah. Normal names. But some have pretty funny, strange names. I guess they gave them to their selves. I had already met a Fairie at the English Corner( more on that later). I have student''s named (English, not their normal chinese name) Joker(girl), M.C cruiser, Prince, Romeo, Happy, Melon (boy, and i could not stop laughing at his name), Monkey, and some other good ones i forgot. One kid was named David, but I couldn't understand what he was saying and i thought he was saying "stabby",which i thought was a pretty good name...
I will continue the chronological telling of my first weeks in china soon. i am pretty tired right now
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
OvertheTopoftheWorld
Again, I apologize for not posting. things have been crazy. So, while I am two and a half weeks behind, I will try to start from the beggining. There is so much that i will leave out alot, but hopefully i can fill those holes as I go. I will now update fairly regulary, especially now, so please check this somewhat regulary.
so, about three weeks ago, oswego. I was having trouble getting my Visa, my airline tickets, you name it. It looked very unlikely that I would make it to China at all... Everything came together at the last moment, but it was a very nerve wracking experience. I ordered my Visa from the internet, and had to overnight Fed Ex it to and back from Houston, Tx. By the way, the service I used was Visa Express, which did a really good job. Use them if you need a Visa like right now and can't get to an embassy. Anyway, while all of this was going on, I had to move out of Mackin Hall. I had to make the risky desicion of junking/giving away most of my stuff, as I couldn't take it to China. so I did, one thing that is good about me is that while I do love my material possesions, i have no problem dropping them if i have to. The only thing i truly regret is the books. So anyway, I had no where to live, technically. Tse mei offerered to let me stay in Hart Hall with her, which was incredibly kind. I was worried becuase the school can be dicks about people staying there who are not paying, but everything worked out great. By the way, Tse mei is one of the greatest, kindest, wise, aware girls that I know and any one who gives her any crap is an asshole and needs to be beat. I am very lucky in that i have such great friends and family members who have helped me over the years. without them, i wouldn''t be alive, much less in
China. I am truly lucky in that regard....
So after reiciving the Visa, Steve and I got the plane tickets( he did the work, i suck at things like that). That also felt like it was going to fall through, but it worked out. So, Travis and Joe picked up tse mie and I ( she was going to the train station for a trip) and took us to syracuse. We dropped off awesome little tse mei and headed to the airport. I was nervous about pretty much everyting: security, dying, was my luggage going to make it through. Travis dropped me off. Travis is another person who is beyond awesome and i love him to death( not in a sexual way, that is a complete rumor!). I have not flown since before 911, and i was pretty nervous. I just always assume that organisations full of official type people will not let me do things. WEll, thing went pretty well. checkin, luggage, security all went off without a hitch. Not to much later, I was on a plane to Newark, Nj. it was a very quick flight and I enjoyed looking down on the distant, tiny new york state. I enjoyed my time in Oswego, but I would like to give a big fuck off to Ny state and its expensive prices. Dear New York, I can buy cigs here for about 50 cents american, ten times less than what it costs in you!
anyhoo, I want to mentiion that due to me being me, i truly don't think that i should have made it here. In Niel Gaimen's the book of magic, John Constantine tells tim about the magic side highway or something like that for traveling. While i try not to be a fatalist, I beleive that I was riding that sideway or whatever. the idea is that if your meant to go, things will work out even though they shouldn't. i blelieve, or at least part of me believes, that i was meant to come to china.
Anyhoo, small layover in Newark, and then onto the big plane. Very nice, full of Chinese mainly. It was a thirteen hour flight! I did not sleep at all. I had a window seat and a nice Chinese couple next to me. For the length of the flight, I did not sleep! I watched the screen which indicated the path of the flight; I was approximatley aware of when we left the US. It was a strange feeling becuase i knew i ouwld not be back for at least a year. maybe longer. maybe never. i don't know. But it was wierd. So then we flew over Canada. Oh yeah, the surprising thing to me was that we did not fly east or west, but north, pretty much in a straight line. so we flew up to the northpole, and even though our direction did not change, we then flew South. we flew twelve hours into the Future and then flew halfway in one direction and then half way to opposite. Unless you believe the earth is flat. anyhoo, The barren parts of Canada were interesting, lots of large lakes. But the Northren parts of greenland and the North Pole are indescribable! Huge, monolithic rocks with no green or covered in snow. It looks like something out of Lovecraft. Looking down on this, I was truly without words, its the strangest feeling, its like another world. although the stewardesses kept telling us to keep our windows shut becuase people were sleeping. It was the fucking daytime and we are over places people probably have never walked on at all. But petty creature comforts are certainly more important! people can screw anything up. but it was still amazing.
by the way, i read Lolita on the flight. amazing book. extemely disturbing, but also very funny. Nabokov was a master of language, amazing little details. i have read it before, and enjoyed it even more this time. well, it did sicken me in places, but i am glad that i finished it! Read it!
We flew over the North Pole and I did not see Santa or any of that. just alot of Ice. lots. Then we few over Siberia and down into China. China has amazing mountians from the Air, they look like wrinkly old men. When we flew into Bejieng, which is bordered by Mountains, we flew into a amazing cloud of Smog. Bejing is huge and is hard to describe. I will save my impression of Urban China for another post. So we get off at bejing and i have to check out and then check in again. The aiport is huge and this is where language starts to become a bit of a barrier. many people spoke english in the airport, but some did not . this is where i began to feel like a dumb english speaking person, which still happens here sometimes. I need to learn Mandarin! anyway, Five hours in bejing. seen some olympians. Got on a plane to Dalian.
This is where the trip started to get to me. I had not slept since Travis had picked us up. I had been up at least 24 four hours. I kept nodding off on the flight. the wierdest part of that was that even though everyone was speaking Mandarin, when i started to nod off, I could hear them speak english. My mind was trying to convert their speech. this still happens sometimes when i am not paying attentiion. So, i kept nodding off. ithink everyone around me probably thought i was some american drug addict. you know, all americans are drug addicts or crinimals or cops according to the movies, or they are in romantic comedies, which is probably the real reason most of the world hates us( the chinese do not hate us, btw, but more on that later). anyway, in dalian. everyting still running smooth. Ed, and american who works for the company and April, chinese< pick me up. there is a little confusion, but they take me to my chinese apartement.
I think that is more then enough for now! more on my first days soon....
so, about three weeks ago, oswego. I was having trouble getting my Visa, my airline tickets, you name it. It looked very unlikely that I would make it to China at all... Everything came together at the last moment, but it was a very nerve wracking experience. I ordered my Visa from the internet, and had to overnight Fed Ex it to and back from Houston, Tx. By the way, the service I used was Visa Express, which did a really good job. Use them if you need a Visa like right now and can't get to an embassy. Anyway, while all of this was going on, I had to move out of Mackin Hall. I had to make the risky desicion of junking/giving away most of my stuff, as I couldn't take it to China. so I did, one thing that is good about me is that while I do love my material possesions, i have no problem dropping them if i have to. The only thing i truly regret is the books. So anyway, I had no where to live, technically. Tse mei offerered to let me stay in Hart Hall with her, which was incredibly kind. I was worried becuase the school can be dicks about people staying there who are not paying, but everything worked out great. By the way, Tse mei is one of the greatest, kindest, wise, aware girls that I know and any one who gives her any crap is an asshole and needs to be beat. I am very lucky in that i have such great friends and family members who have helped me over the years. without them, i wouldn''t be alive, much less in
China. I am truly lucky in that regard....
So after reiciving the Visa, Steve and I got the plane tickets( he did the work, i suck at things like that). That also felt like it was going to fall through, but it worked out. So, Travis and Joe picked up tse mie and I ( she was going to the train station for a trip) and took us to syracuse. We dropped off awesome little tse mei and headed to the airport. I was nervous about pretty much everyting: security, dying, was my luggage going to make it through. Travis dropped me off. Travis is another person who is beyond awesome and i love him to death( not in a sexual way, that is a complete rumor!). I have not flown since before 911, and i was pretty nervous. I just always assume that organisations full of official type people will not let me do things. WEll, thing went pretty well. checkin, luggage, security all went off without a hitch. Not to much later, I was on a plane to Newark, Nj. it was a very quick flight and I enjoyed looking down on the distant, tiny new york state. I enjoyed my time in Oswego, but I would like to give a big fuck off to Ny state and its expensive prices. Dear New York, I can buy cigs here for about 50 cents american, ten times less than what it costs in you!
anyhoo, I want to mentiion that due to me being me, i truly don't think that i should have made it here. In Niel Gaimen's the book of magic, John Constantine tells tim about the magic side highway or something like that for traveling. While i try not to be a fatalist, I beleive that I was riding that sideway or whatever. the idea is that if your meant to go, things will work out even though they shouldn't. i blelieve, or at least part of me believes, that i was meant to come to china.
Anyhoo, small layover in Newark, and then onto the big plane. Very nice, full of Chinese mainly. It was a thirteen hour flight! I did not sleep at all. I had a window seat and a nice Chinese couple next to me. For the length of the flight, I did not sleep! I watched the screen which indicated the path of the flight; I was approximatley aware of when we left the US. It was a strange feeling becuase i knew i ouwld not be back for at least a year. maybe longer. maybe never. i don't know. But it was wierd. So then we flew over Canada. Oh yeah, the surprising thing to me was that we did not fly east or west, but north, pretty much in a straight line. so we flew up to the northpole, and even though our direction did not change, we then flew South. we flew twelve hours into the Future and then flew halfway in one direction and then half way to opposite. Unless you believe the earth is flat. anyhoo, The barren parts of Canada were interesting, lots of large lakes. But the Northren parts of greenland and the North Pole are indescribable! Huge, monolithic rocks with no green or covered in snow. It looks like something out of Lovecraft. Looking down on this, I was truly without words, its the strangest feeling, its like another world. although the stewardesses kept telling us to keep our windows shut becuase people were sleeping. It was the fucking daytime and we are over places people probably have never walked on at all. But petty creature comforts are certainly more important! people can screw anything up. but it was still amazing.
by the way, i read Lolita on the flight. amazing book. extemely disturbing, but also very funny. Nabokov was a master of language, amazing little details. i have read it before, and enjoyed it even more this time. well, it did sicken me in places, but i am glad that i finished it! Read it!
We flew over the North Pole and I did not see Santa or any of that. just alot of Ice. lots. Then we few over Siberia and down into China. China has amazing mountians from the Air, they look like wrinkly old men. When we flew into Bejieng, which is bordered by Mountains, we flew into a amazing cloud of Smog. Bejing is huge and is hard to describe. I will save my impression of Urban China for another post. So we get off at bejing and i have to check out and then check in again. The aiport is huge and this is where language starts to become a bit of a barrier. many people spoke english in the airport, but some did not . this is where i began to feel like a dumb english speaking person, which still happens here sometimes. I need to learn Mandarin! anyway, Five hours in bejing. seen some olympians. Got on a plane to Dalian.
This is where the trip started to get to me. I had not slept since Travis had picked us up. I had been up at least 24 four hours. I kept nodding off on the flight. the wierdest part of that was that even though everyone was speaking Mandarin, when i started to nod off, I could hear them speak english. My mind was trying to convert their speech. this still happens sometimes when i am not paying attentiion. So, i kept nodding off. ithink everyone around me probably thought i was some american drug addict. you know, all americans are drug addicts or crinimals or cops according to the movies, or they are in romantic comedies, which is probably the real reason most of the world hates us( the chinese do not hate us, btw, but more on that later). anyway, in dalian. everyting still running smooth. Ed, and american who works for the company and April, chinese< pick me up. there is a little confusion, but they take me to my chinese apartement.
I think that is more then enough for now! more on my first days soon....
ContactInformation
This is my contact information. The Mailing adress is for the office of the company I work for, which is the best way for me to reiceve anything:
Patrick Evon
Room 1108
ShengShi Mansion No. 35
Luxun Road
Zhongshan District
Dalian City
Liaoning Province
Post Code: 116001, P.R. China
My home phone (from the states):86-411-39658971
My cell( i think that the international code is the same(86-411)-15942801120
Patrick Evon
Room 1108
ShengShi Mansion No. 35
Luxun Road
Zhongshan District
Dalian City
Liaoning Province
Post Code: 116001, P.R. China
My home phone (from the states):86-411-39658971
My cell( i think that the international code is the same(86-411)-15942801120
Sunday, September 7, 2008
patience
if anyone is following this blog, i am sorry that i have not posted much. It took a while to get the internet in my apartment... by that time, i have been busy adjusting to china or teaching ( usually both). i will start updating regulary in the next few days, i hope!
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