Friendship Award, KTV

This week has been extremely busy for me!  I love being busy.  It is my favorite.  I would rather be super busy than bored!  Feel free to remind me of this later in life when I am complaining about lack of free time.

Place setting at the honoree table!

On Tuesday we were invited to a fancy lunch, and informed it was formal.  So we went, having no idea what to expect.  Well what it was, was a big lunch for foreigners honoring some winners of the Hunan Friendship Award!  It was amazing to see so many foreigners and to see how fancy the main table was!  Geoff, Becky, Chris and I were all invited by Yi Zhong.  We attended with Estelle (the french teacher at Yi Zhong), Damien and Khan (teachers from the international department), Claire (a senior 2 teacher who is Chinese but now holds a German Passport), and Sunny (our liaison).  We all got so dressed up, but in true Chinese style many of the Chinese attendees who were not sitting on at the honoree table were wearing jeans and polos!

Me, Sunny and Estelle

So there were speeches, awards given and then dancing.  Of course most of it was minority dances, China loves to reveal in their diversity.  But more on that later...  Anyways, so there were many speeches given.  A speaker was introduced, turns out he was the governor of Hunan province!  So we waited for a lull in lunch, and asked him for a toast and a picture!

Me, Geoff, Becky, The Governor!!, Chris, Claire and Estelle

That was fun and it was even more fun teaching my next two classes in that ensemble!  (Not)

Then that Wednesday was my friend Liao's birthday.  I had invited him to dinner earlier and he had responded with an invite to his birthday dinner.  Because I was unable to attend, I decided to go to KTV with them after my dinner.  It was hilarious!  The teachers of the international department were wasted, singing and eventually throwing cake at each other!  That was when I left.  But props for me, I got an entire KTV room to do the conga with my rendition of Waka waka!

Yueyang

This weekend my friends and I traveled up to Yueyang, Hunan.  This town is about 1hour and 40 minutes away by train.  The train ride was easy, nothing too difficult.  There was a little child on the train who became a bit notorious.  He was such a little emperor.  If you don't know what that is, google it.  It is a growing problem in China, and we all wanted to smack him.  We arrived, dropped our stuff off and headed to see the sights.  We were up there partially to see our friend, partially to visit the town.  Our friend was busy until about 6.  So we headed to Yueyang Tower.  It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful pagoda's in southern China.  It has been burnt down a ton of times, and now is a rather nice park.  Not worth the 80 yuan they charged us.  They wouldn't give us a student discount.  Disappointing really.  Every person in Hunan talks about Zhangjiajie, Fenghuang, and Yueyang tower as the 3 main things to see in Hunan.  Now I have done all them!  It was a little surprising how anti-japan Yueyang was.  Little signs were all over the stores and every single Japanese car had either Chinese flags all over it, or anti-Japanese signs or both.

It was very odd to see.  And we were all made a little uncomfortable by it.  It is odd to be in a country where they feel really strongly against a country.  To wonder what exactly is going to happen between these two countries and these islands.  Especially when you think about the situation with Tibet.  If you don't know much about the Diaoyu islands and how they might possibly have something to do with Tibet.  Here is an interesting article I read on Shanghaiist.

http://shanghaiist.com/2012/09/22/tibet-ccp-sovereignty-legal-argument.php

Anyways, so the sights of Yueyang.  The tower was pretty cool.

And the weather was awesome!  The pollution was pretty bad, it was almost impossible to see the lake. Dongting lake, which is the 2nd largest freshwater lake in China!  The 1st is Qinghai lake.  This pagoda is the Yueyang Tower, it is not worth 80 yuan.  But beautiful.  Junshan island was amazing, the bus was a mere 5 yuan,  and drove us the long way around.  We started out being the only people on the bust, we were in the back.  The bus filled up, but no one noticed us.  Estelle and I were the only white people on the bus, obviously.  But at one point there was a bug next to us, a really big terrifying bug.  So we screamed and slid really far away, every single person on the bus turned and stared at us.  Then continued staring because we were foreigners.

But at one point we were driving on a road that should have been a one way, but they were driving both ways.  The road was a raised cement road that had water on both sides, the bus was swerving around fishermen and other cars.  But we arrived finally, and slipped in on a student fare.  30 yuan.  It was nice.  It was beautiful and quiet.  There were tons of temples, and statues and gardens.  Then we all met up, ate a fabulous yueyang dinner, sang KTV and danced the night away.
Which involved being groped by a drunk girl.. but I will talk about that more later.

LongXia (Cray fish in spicy sauce)

Opinions, Creeps, Strange Students

As I have been speaking to more and more Chinese people about the protests.  I am realizing that the average Chinese person doesn't think much of the protests.  They think it is a bunch of unemployed people causing trouble.  They know that these protests don't actually mean a whole lot.  One of my friends had their Japanese car destroyed.  Who does that hurt? Not the Japanese, but the poor person who owns the car.  Some of my friends are even embarrassed, thinking that this reflects poorly on Chinese people.  Granted most of my friends are graduated from university.

So moving on from that, I love China.  I love the fact that most guys are far too shy to approach me.  I don't get hassled almost ever, if I do it is someone saying "hello" then giggling incredulously with his friends that I said "hello" back.  Very non-threatening, almost amusing some days.  Other days I pretend not to hear, or not to speak English.  There is a young man named Tommy who lives near Yi Zhong, I guess he thinks he knows me well enough to step up his creepy.  Tommy is the young man who last year told me he doesn't like Chinese girls because they only care about money.  Michaela bless her heart piped up with "American girls are the same, we only like money."  At first I thought it was funny and a little rude.  Now I wish I had been a little less nice.  He cornered me in a store and asked me,

"We are friends, why I don't have your phone number?  why I don't have your qq?  Why you and me no go clubby drinky."  As I squirmed uncomfortably looking for my usual American standard blow off.  "you are my girlfriend.. friend."

"NO, I am not your girlfriend.  I have a boyfriend."  I said defensively, "I don't like clubby drinky. I have to go."  I ran off to the restaurant where I was meeting friends a few store fronts down.  I order and sit, who walks up... Tommy.  To harrass me once more.  To tell me I must like hamburgers, because I am fat.  And tell me he doesn't like his mom because she doesn't give him money.  "Get a job"  I respond.  He doesn't get it, luckily Geoff shows up.  And the situation melts into the background.

Then I forgot about my troubles as I saw my students playing the most bizarre game that involved making people kiss.  As far as I could tell it was elimination rock-paper-scissors.  If you lose you go on to the next round, if you lose all the rounds then you have to kiss someone.  I fled the room laughing about how crazy my students are.

That night my dear friend Lee called me.  He had had a rough day, and was telling me about how he wants to go to America.  How he hates his school, and how he thinks they have lied to him.  But when he asked about me, I asked him gently.  "What do you say to a guy who won't leave you alone?"
He paused.  "You tell him to Fuck off.  You are too nice, you don't need to be nice to everyone."

This is very true, I wonder if I can be strong enough to say it.

Diaoyu Islands and being a Foreigner!

Business as usual despite the protests down the block

 I was prepared for the worst yesterday.  Yesterday was September 18th, the day of the Manchurian Incident.  An incident that the Japanese used as an excuse to invade northern China back during WWII.  So I was prepared for really terrible anti-japanese protest, but when the day came all the universities practically locked their students on campus.  Our school kept their gates closed most of the day.  Around mid-day I heard the protesters from my apartment.  They were walking up Yingpan Lou towards the huge public park, Martyrs Park.  Which makes sense, but the anger and the sheer craziness of the protests seemed a little less.  Maybe once again I was protected by the school, or perhaps I was just expecting really extreme craziness.  But needless to say, my Jiuyibashibian (九一八事变) passed without too much excitement.
That night I was speaking to a friend, he just started university in Guangzhou.  He was telling me that he wants to leave China.  He proceeded to tell me that if you have money and relationships you can do anything you want in China.  If you don't you are screwed.  He wants to leave, become a soldier in another country.  To be strong.  He thinks that the government in China needs to change.  I told him how I like China, and it has bad things and good things.   Then he said something that made me think.

"You are a foreigner, you don't feel it because of your face."

It is true, my experience abroad is my own.  I cannot possibly understand what it means to be Chinese.  I can never truly be Chinese.  I am not sure I would want to be Chinese.  But I am a guest in their country, and they treat me as such.  People can be so patient with me, but I must never forget that they give me special treatment.

I have never felt as foreign as I have during these protests.  While I vaguely understand why they are protesting, I really don't get it.  I don't think I ever could.  So today at clubs day there were students working on a sign that proclaimed their feelings about the Diaoyu islands.  I was cringing hoping they wouldn't ask me to sign the signs.

The above sign says "爱国护岛卫我主权" (aiguohudaoweiwozhuquan).  Love country protect islands guard our sovereignty.  The students all signed it, and took pictures in front of it, and were chanting anti-japan sentiments. Ignoring the fact that you can study Japanese at Yi Zhong.  I was able to stay away from it, but as Becky and I were translating the sign when the students went to eat.  Some students came up to us to ask us to sign it.  Becky smiled sweetly in her precious Becky way and answered.  "This is just for students."  "no, anyone can."  "We are not students"  Then we booked it to the safety of their office.

Later I was approached by a student of mine for last year.  This kid has amazing English, and I think of him as a worldly fellow because he has facebook.  Not because he has facebook, but he can access facebook and therefore can access news outside the "Great Firewall."  He asked me "Have you signed your name?"  Without missing a beat, I said " I am a foreigner, this is for Chinese."  It is true.  This is China's mess, if something happens between China and Japan.  I will have to leave.  It is my friends in China who will pay for whatever goes down.  Needless to say, I don't think anything will happen but I am keeping my fingers crossed that Japan and China figure their shit out in a non-violent way.

Diaoyu Protests

This is Baiyi Lou, with the protests.  They were peaceful for now...

I don't know how many of you know what the Diaoyu islands are, but I sure knew nothing about them before I came to China.  Sometimes I am surprised how ignorant you can be of the world and world issues, then suddenly you step outside of your comfort zone and realize how big and real these issues are.  In the USA, it is easy to feel like world issues are so distant and far away.

Picture from: http://www.morningwhistle.com/html/2012/Macro_0910/213955.html

These islands are claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan.  They have some prime fishing waters and access to natural gas.  For years there has been some official disagreements but no official action, as far as I can gather.   I have no real knowledge of the actual situation.  But what I do know is recently Japan somehow produced a contract saying they own the islands.  I don't know anything more than China does not recognize this contract.  The people in China have been whipped up into a very strong anti-japanese mood.  Yesterday there were to be protests, protesting Japanese businesses.  In Changsha the people were going to march from one Pinghetang (a japanese import grocery store) in the west to one in the east.  I first heard about the protests from a friend who was trying to get to the Train Station.  They had shut down Wuyi for the protests, she had been stuck on the bus for about a half an hour.  Then I was walking to a restaurant for lunch,  my friends and I were surprised to see the protest walking down the road between us and our food.  We crossed quickly, taking a few pictures.  But it was peaceful, just people walking with banners with pro-China, anti-Japan signs.  We arrived at the restaurant, I called a friend of ours to see if he was still coming.

Zhuzhou, Photo by Diana Linay Lopez Ruano

"I am sorry, I can't come.  I am stuck" was what I was able to hear over the noise of the restaurant.  It wasn't until later that night that I was able to understand what exactly that meant.  Although sitting in the teacher's office between my classes, they were all discussing the protests.  Chris helped translate some of what they were saying.  Apparently a car had been set on fire by Carrefour for being Japanese.  Then I went into class number 1.  I was teaching a lesson on "What do you want?"  "Why should you get it?"  A lesson geared towards having them tell me why they deserve to do something.  When I invited students up to the board to write what they wanted I got some cute answers.  "I want an iPhone 5," "I want to get married," and "I want to play DOTA."  But I also got some interesting answers from students.  "I want the Diaoyu Islands."  "I want to kick the Japanese president's ass."  I was surprised and totally unprepared for this.  I handled it badly, and had them practice saying them but didn't even ask them to justify why they wanted it.  But after that, I hopped in a cab and headed to dinner with Teresa and Becky.  We saw no signs of protests, but did smell smoke when we passed Carrefour.

Changsha, Photo by Phil LePoidevin

After dinner we were going to head over to the West side of Changsha and meet up with a friend of Teresa's.  This friend was afraid for her car, which was a japanese car.  Her friend's car had been flipped apparently.  So we went to the south end of Buxingjie.  I saw no signs of the protests as I relaxed and got my frozen yogurt!!  Then we went to get a massage, our masseurs asked us (of course) "Ni shi nali ren?" (What nationality are you?).  We responded "American."  They then commented to each other, "Good thing they are not Japanese."  Then we went to Mr. Beer, to have a beer.  We met up with one of my friends who had to miss lunch.  It turns out he was actually stuck in his building.  Protesters were clashing with police who were trying to contain some of the violence that had broken out.  He had amazing photos from up in his building.

This morning things have returned to normal, Pinghetang was looted.  Cars were flipped, schools are making students go to class to keep them from any further unrest.  Whether this will have an impact outside of China remains to be seen.

Zhuzhou: Photo by Diana Linay Lopez Ruano

Drinking in China

Drinking in China is very different than in the states.  In the states friends can go out grab a drink, drink it and catch up.  In China drinking is all business.  Friends will go out and drink, but only in the form of drinking games that cause people to drink waaay beyond their ability.  The most common source of drinking is a business dinner, wedding party, or banquet.  People will cheers a table, or an individual person.  First the host will propose a toast to the tables, all the ones that are there.  Then the guests will toast their host, either one at a time or a whole table at a time.  You can see where it is easy to get very smashed very quickly.

The most striking part of this drinking culture is how early they learn it.  At this particular dinner, I was sitting with the teachers and officials of the international department.  My friends son, was already well versed in making toasts.  He is 8 years old now.  He had his glass of pepsi and was cheers with everyone else.  The one thing I will say is if you are a woman, it is much easier to get away with drinking juice or tea instead of alcohol.  But then the students came in with beer, juice, and pepsi and began to toast their teachers!  In the USA this is unacceptable, these students are 15, 16, 17.  It was interesting to see the teachers reactions, or lack their of.

Drinking in China can be very fun, but is a completely different animal than in the states.

New A/C

Well my new A/C has arrived.  Three young chinese guys came in.  One carried a huge heavy box with the new A/C in it.  I gasps and said "so strong".  I think if this guy would have blushed, he looked really taken aback.  Oops cultural differences anyways.  Words cannot describe how they fixed my A/C so enjoy some pictures.  PS:  I live on the 5th floor!!

Chinese Tests of Patience and Persistence

I have been in China for a week now.  This week has been one of the most physically, emotionally, and spiritually draining weeks I have experienced in a while.  Friday, my ankle was hurting, but I dutifully ignored it and continued off having fun.  Saturday it hurt a bit more, so I got some ice.  That didn't really work and I was limping like an idiot.  Sunday I limped into Ayi's tea shop, and she asked "Did the ice help you ankle."  I shook my head pathetically and she looked at my ankle and immediately said "You have to go to the hospital."  I don't really blame her and really must thank her.  My foot was super swollen.  So Becky took me to the hospital that afternoon.

As you may or may not remember the hospital is like a giant mall.  You show up, go to one kiosk to register and pay, then go to see the doctor, then he writes instructions and you go pay for all the procedures then have to go find where you get all the procedures done.  Simple right?  Well you are wrong.  Even without the language barrier the hospital procedure is confusing and ridiculous.  4 and half hours later, I had seen a doctor, been prescribed a medicine that wasn't in the pharmacy in the outpatient side of the hospital, gone to the emergency side, been sent back, gone back to the emergency side, registered, bought medicine, carried it upstairs got an allergy test done, gone back downstairs paid.  Finally, after arriving at the hospital at 2, at 6:00 I was sitting in an iv room having some sort of medication pumped into my veins.  An Iv room is exactly what it sounds like.  A bunch of chairs that have a place to hang your IV, and everyone sitting in one room.  The nurses wheel in and out, bringing medication and sticking needles in people.  The guy sitting next to me had to get a shot in his butt, in a room full of people.  Privacy is a thing of the past, I thought as I let the guy next to me read my hospital book.

Monday, I had to cancel my classes to go get a blood test that I couldn't get on Sunday.  Then I had to do something else, but I had no idea.  Luckily, Simona, who is wonderful, came to the rescue.  Speaking Chinese and getting me my medication so I could get not one but two IV's a day.  After 2 hours I was leaving the hospital, heading to Yi Zhong's infirmary to get my injections done.  I arrived in the infirmary and was told they couldn't do it.  All the stress and anger and frustration started to pour out of my eyes.  I looked at the horrified nurses and couldn't help starting to sob.  I sobbed out "Buhaoyisi"  I am sorry/I am embarrassed.  They immediately pulled out their cellphones and called Sunny.  Then in Chinese they told me Huang Laoshi was coming, I nodded trying to stop crying.

End of the story: Sunny to the rescue!  She took me to the hospital just down the street, not as nice as Xiangya, and set up my injections for the next week.  Chris my new sitemate came and sat with me as I got my first injection of several.

  Then that afternoon I went with Papaya back to the hospital to get my bloodtest results, and have her translate between the doctor and I.

Diagnosis:  I have an infection in the lymphnodes of my foot/ankle.  They have me on antibiotics, and made me get an allergy test cause I have an allergy to penicillin.  So now I have to do this for a week and see what happens!

Result:  Thank you Ayi, Becky, Simona, Sunny, and Papaya.  And I realize now how important good friends and good people are no matter what country you are in.

1st Graders

China has tested me, and found me strong!  As a treat, today I was able to teach 4 of my new 5th grade classes!  They were all adorable and loved my stupid games!  I also saw many of my old 5th grade students, who are now 6th graders.  They are all about 6inches to a foot taller!!!  I ran into many of my old 6th graders who were coming home from military training.  Also had a student ask me:

"Are you a handsome boy, or a beautiful girl?"

As a final thought here are some pictures from my route between 长沙市一中学 and 一师二付小!  (Yi Zhong and my primary school)

Chinese Police and Little Girls

My Usual Breakfast (5 yuan)

After a late night of Tiger Beer, Foosball, and catching up, I wasn't feeling too well.  So I forwent my usual giant bowl of noodles.  I ate a banana, grabbed some yogurt and was given some pink bread.  The label just said it was bread, not sure what kind it was.  I took my yogurt and my bread to the local park, Martyrs Park.  The park was decorated with red signs all over that said something about all people harmoniously using medicine.  There was a stage that had two people talking, I can only assume about the pharmacy that had set this up.  I avoided that and went into the coolness of the trees.  Even at 9am I was dripping sweat down my back.  I sat there and quietly ate my yogurt, watching the old people gathered around the tables.  I listened to the mixing of Erhus and the dance music coming from the stage.  There was a little girl walking around me, slowly creeping closer.  She was carrying a poster advertising a kitchen, she kept hiding behind it.  Eventually she got close enough and I said "Ni hao".  She ran away, and a few seconds later came back and started asking me what I was eating.  "Mianbao (bread)"  Then she put her poster down and started talking to me, and telling me how to say the numbers.  Shortly there after two older women came over and started asking me what I was doing, where I was from and what I did.  They wandered off eventually, and the little girl just said "I am going now" and walked off.  As I walked home smiling to myself I couldn't help but think, this is China.

In contrast I woke up this morning, went to get my usual breakfast and sat down.  I was eating and chatting with an old man, who asked me how much money I made.  He was impressed by the amount, I made.  But as we were chatting two police in uniform came up and started speaking to the owners, the owners took their sign about noodles off the sidewalk outside.  Then the police started talking to the vegetable sellers who were selling their vegetables on tarps.  I kept my head down and ate, the vegetable sellers were slowly packing it up.  When another man walked in carrying a stick, he looked like the guy from Gangam Style mixed with Mao.  He started yelling and waving the stick.  I saw the communist patch on his sleeve. The veggie sales people packed it up and left.  I finished stood up to pay and the owner said to me.  "Tomorrow we will rest, don't come here tomorrow"  I wonder if the two were connected.  As I walked home, I saw all three police officers sitting at the noodle place next door.