Archive for September, 2008

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New Apartment/ Start class

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

I’ve returned to my new apartment, and it is awesome.  Way better than anything the school could offer, and I’m going to get reimbursed some amount that is greater than what I’m paying!  I pay 1000 rmb per month for a place that is comparable or nicer than crossing place at UTK.  There are a few cultural differences: no microwave, really crappy washing machine, all fake hardwood flooring, can’t drink the tap water or flush toilet paper, and the shower is not separated in anyway from the rest of the bathroom.  It is just a drain in the floor and a fixture on the wall.

There are a few fixes that I have added to make it a little more hospitable.  First is a water dispenser like you would find at a business office with the 5 gallon jug on top.  The machine cost about $25, and the jugs are $2 to replace (they deliver for free via 3 wheel bike cart).  Also, I “installed” i.e., bought and cut to the correct shape, a piece of carpet for the hall outside of the bathroom.  This way the water doesn’t get everywhere and turn the dusty floors into wet dusty floors.   The extra is surrounding my bed so that I don’t get cold feet first thing in the morning!

The girls (i live with 3 Chinese girls) said, “How are we going to clean it?! whine, etc…”  I responded, “It won’t look like you have to all the time…”  Anyway, after a few months if I don’t want to buy a vacuum, we can just replace it for another 126 rmb, ~ $18.

I like not feeling guilty for sitting on the floor in my room.  I just think that Chinese dirt is so much worse than USA dirt.  Maybe it is seeing the baby momma’s hold their slit panted babies over garbage cans or off  the side of the road.  We trade our regular shoes for house sandals at the door, but the floor still gets dirty somehow.  I’d prefer barefoot like the Japanese…not sure if that is right.

Today was the first day of class.  I’m in the upper elementary level, 102, but it will be plenty hard.  I know most of the words and can understand the teacher fairly well, but I can’t really understand the tapes she plays in class or read all of the homework without my dictionary.  There are 2 people in my class from UT, holy crap!  Georgia Varlan and Adam Brady.

Over the Chinese fall break, I’m going to work at a Model UN camp for high schoolers speaking English.  7 days in a 4 star hotel with meals paid, etc.  I will get 3000-3500 depending on my performance.  China is so easy for English speakers.  I recommend it for anyone that doesn’t know what to do with their lives.

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Trip to the south of China (part 2)

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

The club in Yueyang started at around 8pm.  Cherry and I met up with a couple of her high school friends and some of their friends.  There is a tremendously generous culture here for guests, and as I was certainly the whitest person they had seen in a while, I didn’t pay for anything.  We had a booth, Budweiser, mixed drinks, non-mixed drinks, duck tongue, and some other stuff.  I thought it was funny that some of the American rap songs were still censored even though none of them would be able to understand the curse words.

It was really dark with flashy lights and loud music, so it was especially hard to communicate, but the people in the table next to me called me over for a picture and gave me some drinks.  (The way they do it: Bring a bottle of alcohol to the table along with about 20 20 ounce bottles of juice.  Mix it a couple of juice bottles at a time into a larger pitcher, then pour some of that into a smaller pitcher.  Use the smaller pitcher to pour the very diluted drinks into a shot glass.  You can really drink all night because it might be 3% a.c.)

At about 10 o’clock, things really started going when they brought out the pole dancers.  Unfortunately, there is a dude dancer up there also… not sure what the appeal for that was… tried to keep my eyes away from that.  Anyway, someone asked me if I liked the girls. I said sure. He pulled me up to the stage, one of the girls pulled me onto the stage, everyone was cheering, me a little tipsy, she gave me a chair (I know writing this will getting me in trouble), danced, I’m a little embarrassed, danced closer…then poured ICE WATER on me.  The whole packed club was watching.  Pretty crazy night to end before 1130 in Yueyang.  We stayed in a 50 rmb room because we missed the last bus.

The next day we did some touristy things and ate dog!  also … my first art purchase!

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Trip to the south of China (part 1)

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

In the closing days of my Summer holiday, as I was moving into my new apartment, one of my new room-mates let us know that she would be traveling to visit her family in Hunnan Province a couple of days later.  I was a little disappointed with not having made any trips over the break, so I invited myself along … asked if I could come.

We arrived the first day at 7 oclock in the morning at Yueyang, a small city (7 million people) in Northern Hunnan.  I was excited to see China’s second largest lake,  Dongting Hu, but Cherry’s family lives in a small village outside of the town … really outside of the town.  After another 2.5 hours on a small bus, walking, then the back of a motorcycle, we arrived.  I went for a run and then fell asleep until 1pm.  I got a lot of looks during this trip and at its longest stretch, I didn’t see any white people for 5 days.  When I woke up, we had lunch with the neighbors of froglegs, little shrimp, eggplant, etc … very traditional.  Cherry’s parents are teachers, and they live in a buidling for teachers near the school.  Also in the village are farmers, but Cherry’s parents could never own farmland because they aren’t farmers.  They were chosen to be teachers.

Later that afternoon, we took another small bus to a slightly larger town to see Cherry’s cousin and her baby boy Dingding.  I have decided that I only like kids for their ability to amuse me.  Dingding couldn’t even sit up or say anything, so I got bored pretty quickly.  Later that night we went to a club in Yueyang …

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What’s going to happen next?

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

Friday Sept 5th: Woke up late with no plans for the day, no objectives or goals of any kind.

I knew for sure, however, that something would happen.  I love it about this city, that almost every day you can experience a new place, meet a person from a different part of the world, or be required to get through a situation extremely frustrating.  I’m at the point now, after much practice, that during the frustrating times, I can conciously think about 3 or 4 hours to the future when the situation will likely be over.  I think improved patience will be one of the results I will most value from this time abroad.

Not until around 2pm did I even think about getting up off of the couch, but I had to go to the bathroom and wanted to take out the trash.  On the way down the steps, when my legs were throbbing from the long run the previous day, I remembered meeting the owner of a massage parlor a block away the previous day.  I figured what the heck and went down there because he told me it was pretty cheap.  “The girl with the strong hands” was out to lunch they said, so they offered me a room to wait, lay down, relax, watch TV, whatever.  I would otherwise be sitting on my own couch, not waiting for a massage, and also not drinking complementary flower tea, so I figured, “What the heck.”  I ended up waiting for about two hours, but that included the tea, a head massage, listening to music, making some calls, and getting my feet prepped for the massage by soaking them in another type of tea in a big wooden bucket.  It was great.  When she arrived, I got an hour long foot and calf massage followed by an hour long “rest of the body” massage.  All clothes stayed on, but it was still cool.  Next time I’ll tell her to be a little gentler.  She had really strong hands!  4 hours of massage/relaxation for 106 rmb or 15 usd.  I think it was pretty good.

Went to dinner at Pyro’s Pizza, a white folks hang out near the university area, with some Chinese girls.  They invited me to move in with them in a place a little outside the city, ie, cheap!  We’ll go see a few places tomorrow or the next day.  While at Pyro’s, I ran into some buddies from my IES summer program, so the girls left and I stayed with the guys and the new IES class.  It was cool being the second most experienced person in the group, seeing the new kids full of awe and wonderment.  Some more stuff happened, decided to go clubbing on the other side of the city because the first most experience guy (here since February) knew a partial owner of the club.  I stuck by his side, and experienced proved me right, we got separated from the rest of the people.

Flash forward two hours, we are sitting the a very elaborate VIP room, plasma TVs, lights etc with the owner, his secretary, some Icelandic dudes, 5 or 6 waiters caitering to our every need for free, and 1 waiter who is juggling Malibu rum bottles with fire works sparking out of the tops!  I didn’t have my camera, but I swear it happend and was surreal.  We kept asking each other, “What is going on?  How did we end up here?  Why am I eating duck toungue dipped in wasabi?! … for free!” I got home at around 5 am.

Here is a quote about GT Banana from a nightlife website: “2000-guest capacity, 3000 m² (that’s nearly an acre, oldies!) megaclub. House music from big-name Chinese and international DJs strutting their stuff in this blend of Hollywood and rocket ship.”  Youtube video

I knew something was going to happen.

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48 Hour Block / Spider Mountain

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

The past two and a half days all blend together with sleep, not sleep, hiking, being lost hiking, being woken up for dinner, running out of bottled water, YouTube marathoning, real marathon training, failing, skyping, good news, and sitting.  I’m going to try a new format and just write on a time line.

Tuesday 2000: I cooked Host Lady (I don’t really know her name) the amazing dinner that she didn’t really care for.  She asked if I had time to go to “The Fragrant Hills,”  The nearest mountain to beijing city with some neat pavillions on top.  Many of my friends over the summer said it was a great view.  I said that I needed to finish downloading and watching season 4 of both Lost and Entourage, but that I would pencil her in.  Not really, I said how bout tomorrow.

Wednesday 0530: I go to sleep after watching Lost and Entourage, alternating as the downloads completed.

0815: Host Lady wakes me up for breakfast.  This was a less fun part of the story …

1030: Arrive to the area after an hour 45 of standing in a bus.   She would never takes a taxi, of this I am sure.  Getting the real life experiences here: smells, touching strangers, Beijing driving, and host lady telling the people next to us all of the wierd foreign things I do.

1100: Realize we aren’t actually going to the Fragrant Hills, but a plant park (direct translation).  We have met one of HL’s friends, also middle-aged, and equally unsure of where the park is.  We set off on a well maintained trail up a different mountain.  Not sure where we’re going, but these women don’t come off to me as the outdoor/active types.  HL is terrified of millipedes, which i find as a pretty easy form of entertainment.

1145:  There are tons of cool looking yellow spiders, but unfortunately they come with very large webs that cross the trail quite near to even with my face.  I realize that this little trek is actually a mission to find the park.  At this point we begin choosing trails based on which ones look shadier.  The women have upheld the Chinese female tradition of the sun umbrella.  I have to duck lower because of the spider webs.  I’m surprised.

1330: I’m beginning to express concern over repeatedly choosing “the path never traveled.”  I learn the Chinese word for exploration of the unknown and feel a little motivated.  My back is sore from dodging spiders and I’m starting to feel the 3 hours of sleep.

1400: Head down.  Run into a road.  It’s not the right road.  Go back up.  I’m more frustrated.

1500: Stumble upon a deserted Ski lodge/ cable lift infrastructure.  Pretty cool, but I have a feeling that winter will be colder than I have been thinking.  We are blocked by a fence, but they are sure our destination is just on the other side.  Find a break.

1515: We hop a fence at the rear of the park after crossing a dryed up man made waterfall and walking through bees swarm on said waterfall.  Amazingly no one was stung.  This was a fun part.  We sit on a bench for a little while.  Really feeling the 3 hours sleep.

1600: Discover the plant park is actually called The Beijing Botanical Garden, a place worth going … some other time.  Take pictures with roses and stuff.  The park admission is less than 1 usd.  Did we go all the way around spider mountain to save 5 rmb?  We’ll likely never know.

1720: Arrive to bus transfer stop after having fallen asleep standing up hanging to the bar on the bus.  Really unfun part.  HL starts the wait for another f-ing bus.  Girls asks me if I want to teach English, gives me a card.  I stick my hand out in spite of protests and catch a cab for us back home.  It costs 2.25 usd.

1745: Fall asleep.

1815: She wakes me up for bbq duck dinner.

1825: Go to sleep.

2400: Wake up, youtube marathon.

Thursday 0800: Go to sleep.

1200: Wake up to phone call, good news about the biopsy from my neck.  Youtube marathon mixed with facebook and Lost.  I don’t have any bottled water and really don’t want to boil it, so i’m thirsty, but don’t want to move from the couch.

1800: HL asks if I want to go for a walk with her and the dog to get some medicine for the mosquito bites.  I don’t want medicine, but say i need to buy dinner and water (haven’t eaten/dranken (?) since the duck).

1930: Depart for my most abitious run since Knoxville Marathon, two laps around the Olympic park, about 16 miles.

2200:  I make it almost 14 before failing.  Try to walk for 10 minutes to re-energize.  It fails.  Take a taxi home, lame.

Thursday 0312: Skyped, wrote, couldn’t sleep, tenatious D.  finish.

a little long

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