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!!!

Scary Drivers and Mexican Food!!

Drivers in Changsha are crazy.  They really are!  Friday, I watched as my dear friend and boss was nearly run over by a bicycle and then a bus.  We were running for the bus, and a bicyclist came out of no where and smashed into Teresa, she went flying and rolled a bit.  She tucked her feet up and nearly avoided being hit by the bus.  We were both shocked and she was quite hurt by the bike, which was ridden by a teenager.  She proceeded to ream him, quite appropriately.  He was like "i have to go to school."  She replied "You almost killed someone!"

Needless to say this put a bit of a damper on the afternoon, especially since she couldn't laugh due to the bruise that was forming.  But then my friend Garrick got into town.  He came up and smiled and said. "There was an accident in the parking lot"  I shrugged. "Oh ok."  "Someone drove into the plants"  "Oh really... China...  Oh Teresa almost died..."  Then I launched into the above story.  We decided to take a walk in the park due to the lovely lovely spring weather.  We walked out side and this is what I saw.

I was shocked! Needless to say.  And Garrick was like, "i was wondering why you weren't more shocked!  With that we went on to have a fantastic walk, followed by an evening of Mojitos and Mexican food.

Other Waiguoren

The first few months here, I was always excited to see other foreigners.  But now when I see them, there is a moment of "What are you doing here... here in my part of China?"  I am not sure when this shift happened.  I think it happened when I started to see tons of foreigners, and not just regular foreigners.  The foreigners who have Chinese girlfriends they treat like crap, the ones who clearly couldn't get a girlfriend in the states.  This is not to say that all foreigners in China are like that.  My fellow volunteers clearly don't fit into this group!  All my foreign friends do not fit into this group.

But as I may or may not have mentioned, I have become friends with the International Department teachers and students.  I was thrilled when I was invited to go to dinner in the country for a student's birthday party.  The whole department, teachers and students, went to this student's family's villa.  It was amazing!  Huge!  All the houses in that area screamed money, and were based off western designs.  Terrible for the rain though, slippery ass stairs on a rainy day.  They had tons of Shaokao (BBQ) for us to BBQ.  The students went crazy and cooking my own food quickly became impossible.  But if I hung around the students who were having more fun cooking than eating would give me food.  The parents immediately supplied the two foreign teachers, Nick and Lawrence, and me with cognac.  Very pleasant cognac.  The students went crazy 'toasting' Lawrence with Budwisers (expensive imported beer) that has materialized.  Lawrence was mostly saying no, but drinking a bit.
*Sidebar about drinking in China.  It is not really socially acceptable to just drink, people toast each other or play games*
Soon enough though both teachers were smashed, embarrassingly smashed.  I was mortified listening to them howl the Beatles and putting their arms around everyone.  Everyone else was just calmly watching and chuckling shaking their heads.  How do you not feel like Chinese people judge you based on the few drunken foreigners?

Liao and a student!

The evening was fun, the ride home with Liao was interesting.  He was quite drunk, sitting in the back seat with me.  Trying to get me to come work for his department next year.  Nice guy, I don't think I could cut it!  Too much work.  As he himself said "Right now you are free."

Sea Moon Water Palace

Women's day is celebrated all over the world, and in China.  The day is celebrated by giving some women a half day of work, and people buy flowers and presents for the women in their lives!  I am all for celebrating mothers, but how about those of us who don't have children or don't want them!  So my primary school invited me to a "Water Palace."  I said "Of course!"  Lucy was excited, and her excitement was infectious.  The next day I met her and we walked to the "Sea Moon Water Palace."  It was a fancy spa, after 3 attempts I finally got some sandals that fit.  Then we walked into ladies room, a big sign that said "Males Stop" in English was proudly displayed.  We went to our lockers and changed out of our clothes.  It wouldn't have been so awkward if the other teachers were trying to hide their bodies.  I shrugged and went with it.  There were showers, two giant baths with TVs playing soap operas.  One had water massage in it, beds with jets that you could turn on.  Then there was a sauna and a steam room.  Both with windows so you could watch TV!

"Do you want to have a hot towel massage?"  Asked Lucy with a smile, I looked confused so she immediately said the Chinese phrase of "You can have a try." This is what my dear friend Lucy says to me every time I look apprehensive about something.  So I get led to a massage table, the lady puts down saran wrap and tosses water over the table.  Then gestures for me to shed my towel and lay down.  I do so and she tosses water over me, opens a towel from a bag.  And starts to scrub the shit out of me, then I realize she is ripping all of my skin off.  With a hard scrubby towel!!  It hurt, and made me giggle, then made me really uncomfortable as I saw the rolls of dead skin accumulating on my arms and legs.  Then I got to flip over, and man, she did everything.  I felt like she had just rubbed off all my skin.  Which of course she had.  Then a shower and then into some pajamas.  XXL (and they were still a little small)  It was too early for dinner, so we went up to the 3rd floor.

The 3rd floor had low lighting and rows and rows of comfy chairs.  There were personal TVs for each individual chair. But Lucy and I chose to chat and eat watermelon.  Our conversation flew over all the place, talking about mothers and daughters.  And my teaching and my plans for the future.  Then to a buffet it was terrible... then home.  I was finally warm.

Cross Cultural Exchange

Little did I know how much I would enjoy today!  Today has been a very eye opening experience.  I went along with about 10 high school students from New York.  As they came into a class in Yi Zhong for a good cross cultural exchange.  Be prepared, parts of this had me hiding my face trying to avoid the train wreck.  Other parts were priceless.  But one thing is it put into sharp relief how immature Chinese students are by American standards.  Standing in front of these students the American students looked so mature, but they were all about a year younger than the Chinese Students.

The first minutes when the students walked up, I heard very clearly "black people" and the class erupted into laughter.  I wanted to hit my head against a wall.  But a moment to discuss Chinese people's perceptions of black people.  They are extremely racist, but not from a stand point of hate.  Their entire understanding of Western culture comes from movies and tv shows.  Then think about how they are portrayed, and how few black foreigners come to China.  The more that come, the less racist future generations will be.

But anyways, so the Americans were nervous and mumbling.  Which made it difficult for the students to understand.  They asked each other questions, some were interesting.  Some were awkward "Are you a boy or a girl?" was pretty awkward.  The Chinese students went crazy when someone asked "are you allowed to date?"  And two of the American students cozy-ed up to each other and said yes.  It was chaos.  It was hilarious.  There was also an awkward moment where a student was asking about basketball, directing it at the black student.  But overall a good exchange.

Laos Encounters

I want to back track and talk about an interesting person I met.  I was walking around the COPE center and learning about UXO's(Un-Exploded Ordinances) and what it is that COPE does.  If you don't know you should look it up.  It is a center that gives prosthetic legs and arms to victims of UXO's.  While I was walking around I couldn't help but hear the beach boys being played from a computer.  A western man was introducing a young Lao man to the Beach Boys.  It was my song "California Girls."  So I clearly had to go over and say hello.  As I walked up I became aware that the Lao man did not have hands, and was blind.  I introduced myself and hung out while they played music.  Then I wandered off to give them time alone.  Then I went back and talked to this man.

His name was Peter Kim, he is my brother's age.  I felt like I had been kicked in the chest when I thought of that.  What if something like this happened to my brother?  What if I lived in a country where my brother wasn't safe walking around, what if he could come across unexploded bombs?  How would that change how I live my life?  Peter seemed pretty optimistic about his life.  He was a break dancer.  He showed me a clip, and then teased me that I didn't believe him.  Which I totally did.  Now as I sit here remembering him, I am sad that I copied his e-mail down incorrectly.  I wish I could wish him happy birthday.  If by some reason he managed to find this, Happy Late Birthday man!  You changed my life!

Scary times in Changsha

I have learned a valuable less, that I never want to forget.  Chinese people are not all smiles, they never let their aggression out.  So when they get drunk sometimes they are mean.  And over the top.

Teresa and I had gone over to Jerreau's house.  We were sitting and there was a knock on the door.  We were expecting more people.  So he opened the door and saw 3 random Chinese people.  He was afraid they might try something, he didn't know them so he shut the door.  Jerreau has two doors, an outer "Steel" door that has bars and a lighter inner door.  So he opened the inner door and shut it.  The men started yelling and beating against the door.  They were kicking the steel door.  We were panicking and Teresa called the police, as Jerreau called his liaison to call the front desk.  The men broke the lock off the steel door and bent 3 of the bars.  Then they wandered off.

Michaela knocked on the door shortly there after, after securing who it was we ushered her in.  She said she saw three drunk chinese guys.  Then the police came and did a report, and said they would block the doors downstairs so the guys couldn't leave.  It was an unsettling evening.  We will see what happens.  Jerreau gets a new steel door tomorrow, hopefully one that is more solid!