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.

Back Again!!!

I am finally back in the Middle Kingdom (China).  This definitely did not hit me until my 2nd day of traveling.  I slept on my way to Chicago, slept on my way to Seattle and watched the movie.  Then in the Seattle airport it started to sink in as I spoke to other waiguoren (foreigners, for those of you who may have forgotten) about why they were traveling there.  The amount of waiguoren who study and live in China is amazing.  They all have their reasons and seem to have a hard time leaving.  That flight was hard, Hainan airlines has no leg room.  But the food and flight was relatively painless, when I arrived I got my first taste of things I hate about China and things I love about China all at once.

First I spoke to a girl who was coming over to teach, she had no better instructions than "get on a bus at the airport to go to your site."  She spoke no Chinese, there was no one to meet her, no one to help her. I did my best, to call the lady and try to get better instructions.  That is so classically Chinese, at the same time here I am being given a hotel room for my 16hr layover in Beijing.  As I was herded along towards the minibus, I felt for the girl.  My desire to punch the lady only grew when she called me again while I was on the way to the hotel to ask me to help the girl get on the right bus.  Why didn't they send someone to wait for her, collect her.  Or give her really explicit directions in Chinese she could show someone.  OH CHINA!

As the minibus careened around corners, and other cars, towards the hotel, I couldn't help but relax.  I was used to this, this felt normal.  I don't know what that means but I am sure it isn't good.  The hotel staff all spoke English, so I wasn't forced to delve deep for my Chinese just yet.  I woke up the next morning went to the airport, still not feeling like it was China.  Then just before I boarded my last flight, a man with wide eyes stared at me and said "Hello!"  I smiled and responded "Hello".  He and the other people sitting all chuckled.  Then it hit me.  Welcome back to the Middle Kingdom!

The first few days of Changsha have been ridiculous.  It has been eating, cleaning, unpacking, sweating, climbing a million stairs, sweating (did I say that twice, yeah because it has been that bad), and seeing old friends.

I no longer have to pay at the convenience store apparently because I brought my favorite guy some american cigarettes.  7 cups of tea has been redone, there is room to sit and they just put Wifi in.  I almost made my Aie cry when I gave her the gifts I had brought from America.  And truly the best memory for the week so far (besides seeing all my friends), is walking to breakfast at 6:40 only to pause and watch the road completely covered in fireworks go off for Zhong Yuan Jie (spirit day).  Then I walked into my noodle place, the owner smiled and started making my usual order.

I love Changsha and look forward to another year of Chinese inconsistencies, travel, food and friends!

QingShuiTang 请水糖

请水糖 Qingshuitang road is where I currently reside.  I have my favorite restaurants, least favorite restaurants, my work (although I won't be working there start may), my friends and the people I don't like.  Let me first start by confessing I don't know any of these peoples names.  So I have just given them monikers for the purpose of talking about them with my foreign friends.  And I have so many!

7 cups of tea staff: Husband, Cutie and Auntie!

First there is 7cups of tea Auntie.  She is so nice, and she puts up with my terrible Chinese.  She talks to me, slowly and helps me understand many other people.  Despite her thick Hunan accent (or should I say Fulan), she is the easiest person for me to understand because she genuinely wants to communicate with me.  She and the other people that work there are extremely nice.  She actually took me and Kirsten to lunch one day!  Needless to say I never feel guilty about getting my 3rd smoothie or milk tea of the day!

Then there is my FCH (future Chinese husband).  He is so nice, but is always joking with me.  He always has a smile and a chunk of betel nut shoved in his cheek.  He is usually holding a cigarette as he doles out change from his change box.  "Hallo" is how he always greats me, then usually adds in a "Ni hao."  He speaks limited Chinese and has a super thick Hunan accent.  He loves to offer me cigarettes and then laugh when I turn it down.  He and I have a special relationship and he loves giving me free ice cream!  Which we all know how much I love ice cream!  His favorite thing to say to me is "I am not well, I haven't seen you lately"  Or at least I think that is what he is saying!

Catch Up Blog: Fenghuang, KTV, Spy Play, and Dubbing

I haven't written in a while since this seems to take me longer and longer to write an entry.  More thought and time then I have felt like putting into this.  But several things have happened that I will at least try to summarize less I forget them!

First, I went to Fenghuang.  Which is one of the sites they say to visit when you go to Hunan.  It was ok.  The overnight train was not as much fun as it sounds.  Although talking to a gentleman who told me I couldn't be American cause I wasn't fat was interesting.  I arrived there after an overnight train and a hour and half long, very bumpy and windy, bus ride.  It was extremely commercial, and the minority that lived there has been reduced to selling trinkets.  The city is no longer truly old, the buildings are built to look like they are old.  There are people everywhere, taking the same pictures at the same place.  The food is expensive, and walking down the streets you see tons and tons of stores selling the same things.  A few things I recommend you try if you go: the ginger candy, the pizza at the soul cafe, and rice with spices they serve around the streets.  The ginger candy is pulled like taffy, by burly men.  They pull it and pull it, working the sugar and ginger together.  I definitely saw a few attractive men pulling sugar, and some cigarette smoking old guys.  But once they finish pulling it, they pull it very thin and break off pieces and let is solidify into a crunchy deliciously spicy candy.  One of the over priced places we ate was the "Soul Cafe"  They had pizza, delicious pizza!  Missing sauce like most Chinese pizza.

It was fun to travel around, you can find reasonable food.  But it takes some looking.  I think that you only need a day to see Fenghuang.  Of course after I returned I found out there was a section of the Great Wall (souther part) not too far from here.  As well as Dehang, which is a Miao village that is being turned into another kitchy tourist site.  The 7 hour train ride home coupled with the 2 hour bus ride to the train station seemed to make my week start out with no energy.

So Monday and Tuesday were the story of me being sleepy and unproductive.  But the trip was worth it.  Monday night I met an American man who was working for the Embassy in Beijing.  He was in Hunan to ask about land issues.  We went to dinner (late) followed by Shaokao.  Delicious tasty bbq veggies and meat, covered in spices that come out of a waterbottle.  It is probably all MSG, and that is why it is delicious.  Matt was interesting, he is doing a year here then going on to learn Arabic and work in the Middle East.  Tuesday, we went to lunch and then went to Yi Zhong and caught a soccer club game versus another school.  Complete with cheerleaders from the other school.  It is still strange to hear how silent the crowds are when watching a game.  No heckling or cheering.

  Wednesday came around, and one of my favorite students, Challenging, had invited me to his show.  Thomas and I showed up and were given seats right up front.  It was all in Chinese, but it was easy to figure out what was going on.  There was a lot of double crossing and shooting.  There were 3 bodies on the stage at the end.  It was bizarre to see the students wearing fancy clothes and out of uniform.  Challenging wasn't in the show, he either wrote the play or directed it.  He wasn't able to say that, and got very flustered trying to tell me what he did.  So I dropped it.

Friday was the first nice day all week, I spent the morning in my 5th grade classes playing games to help them review for their tests.  I figured out why I didn't like one of my fellow teachers.  She pinches the kids and swats them.  It drives me crazy, there are better ways to deal with naughty children.  And these children aren't even that naughty.  But the kids loved the game, and loved the team names I gave them (Rain, Sun, Lightning, Rainbow).  Then I ran to Yi Zhong to catch the dubbing competition.  This is the 2nd dubbing competition, this was was amazing.  Most were in Chinese, but one was in English.  It was Sherlock (The new tv show), they did a good job.  The guy who did Sherlock couldn't quite keep up with the speed of his speech.  But this wasn't just a dubbing competition.  There was a Yo yo show, trick yo yoing.  And a magic show/performance piece by one of the gentlemen who was in the spy play.

I really wish they would let the students have more club days.  They seem to love them so much and they need them.  Speaking of fun things, I have started a new hobby.  Going to the gym and doing Yoga, Belly Dancing and now Pilates.  I am going to try their Zumba class next and maybe Hip Hop!

Marilyne and Papaya!

Finally KTV.  My friend Papaya, got a discount ticket to a KTV place.  We got a room from 2pm until 6:30pm for 40 yuan.  Papaya, Marilyne, Maureen, Jerry ( a friend of Teresa and Papaya's) and another friend of Papayas and I rocked out from 2 until 6:30.  Although only Papaya, Marilyne and I made it the whole time.  We sang everything from "Waka waka" to "Hey Soul Sister" to "Brown Eyed Girl" and several Chinese songs I need to go find.  KTV has recharged me and made me ready for my coming week!  I also finally found what is left of the old wall of the city!!!