Tuesday, October 11, 2005
INTERESTING CLASSES, CELL PHONE COMPANIES & A FAILED HOMESTAY
After arriving at 7am in Kunming we spent the day preparing for our homestays. We were told when to be back and sent out to buy cell phones. As terrible as American cell phone companies are, somehow the Chinese managed to make it an even more painful experience. After giving me the wrong phone and filling out the forms incorrectly, the saleslady had to call over 3 managers to correct her mistake. Then they gave me a battery that didn't work. 3 hours later it was all taken care of. If anyone wants to call me, my number is 13678792844 (i don't know if a country code is needed.)
I then went to my homestay. The mom and dad were professionals of some sort and they had a 7 year old son. They were rather unfriendly when I arrived. I then had a new experience despite my 10 years and dozens of previous homestays. I was returned. This morning they brought me back to the program house because I was "tai da le" (too big.) I was later informed they had been looking for a way to back out of the homestay and so they said "they had been expecting someone younger." Maybe I should shave. Anyways, I'm now living at the program house until further accomidations can be arranged.
Despite my vagrancy today was a really neat day. In the morning we had a Chinese lesson from a new teacher who opened a language school recently. He helped us a lot with our speaking and learning about the culture. After Chinese we had a Chinese history lesson taught by a Canadian because "we Canadians don't have a bias. We don't give a damn either way." We learned about early Chinese civilization and then about Marxism, why it doesn't work in China and how China practices "Coca-Cola Communism" (i.e. really being capitalist and not giving a damn about social inequalities but still indoctrinating everyone to hate capitalism and pretending to be communist.) I then began Kung Fu. My teacher Peng Yang is in his mid 20's but a master. He started by teaching the 8 basic moves or positions which included punches, kicks, blocks and some positions in which my legs do not naturally go. He spoke very little English, but enough to explain a bit of what we were doing. I also very quickly learned some Chinese commands such as ting (stop,) cuo (wrong) and dui (correct.) Endurance was fine, I kept up. It was my legs that gave out after 2 hours. I am already very sore and he said I would have trouble walking tomorrow but that it would get easier. The last exercise we did was one in which I kick my leg up in the air to where my hand is, above my head. I then slap my foot. I had some trouble with this one (flexibility issues.) He then demonstrated the exercise while leaping around in circles...kung fu style. Maybe one day i'll be able to do that, but for now it seems a long way off.
A sidenote: there's something quite satisfying about smoking with one's teachers (chinese during break, kungfu after lesson.) I don't know, maybe its because that wouldn't happen in America. Also, in an ironic twist, today I caught the leader who has been hassleing me about smoking enjoying a few cigarettes of his own. Needless to say, he's done giving me a hard time and I won't tell the group.
Tomorrow we have a Chinese medicine lesson where I may get accupuncture (much needed after today) and hopefully we will find a home which would want to take in a vagrant such as myself. In the words of The Simpsons: "Nothin' beats the hobo life, stabbin' folks with your hobo knife."
After arriving at 7am in Kunming we spent the day preparing for our homestays. We were told when to be back and sent out to buy cell phones. As terrible as American cell phone companies are, somehow the Chinese managed to make it an even more painful experience. After giving me the wrong phone and filling out the forms incorrectly, the saleslady had to call over 3 managers to correct her mistake. Then they gave me a battery that didn't work. 3 hours later it was all taken care of. If anyone wants to call me, my number is 13678792844 (i don't know if a country code is needed.)
I then went to my homestay. The mom and dad were professionals of some sort and they had a 7 year old son. They were rather unfriendly when I arrived. I then had a new experience despite my 10 years and dozens of previous homestays. I was returned. This morning they brought me back to the program house because I was "tai da le" (too big.) I was later informed they had been looking for a way to back out of the homestay and so they said "they had been expecting someone younger." Maybe I should shave. Anyways, I'm now living at the program house until further accomidations can be arranged.
Despite my vagrancy today was a really neat day. In the morning we had a Chinese lesson from a new teacher who opened a language school recently. He helped us a lot with our speaking and learning about the culture. After Chinese we had a Chinese history lesson taught by a Canadian because "we Canadians don't have a bias. We don't give a damn either way." We learned about early Chinese civilization and then about Marxism, why it doesn't work in China and how China practices "Coca-Cola Communism" (i.e. really being capitalist and not giving a damn about social inequalities but still indoctrinating everyone to hate capitalism and pretending to be communist.) I then began Kung Fu. My teacher Peng Yang is in his mid 20's but a master. He started by teaching the 8 basic moves or positions which included punches, kicks, blocks and some positions in which my legs do not naturally go. He spoke very little English, but enough to explain a bit of what we were doing. I also very quickly learned some Chinese commands such as ting (stop,) cuo (wrong) and dui (correct.) Endurance was fine, I kept up. It was my legs that gave out after 2 hours. I am already very sore and he said I would have trouble walking tomorrow but that it would get easier. The last exercise we did was one in which I kick my leg up in the air to where my hand is, above my head. I then slap my foot. I had some trouble with this one (flexibility issues.) He then demonstrated the exercise while leaping around in circles...kung fu style. Maybe one day i'll be able to do that, but for now it seems a long way off.
A sidenote: there's something quite satisfying about smoking with one's teachers (chinese during break, kungfu after lesson.) I don't know, maybe its because that wouldn't happen in America. Also, in an ironic twist, today I caught the leader who has been hassleing me about smoking enjoying a few cigarettes of his own. Needless to say, he's done giving me a hard time and I won't tell the group.
Tomorrow we have a Chinese medicine lesson where I may get accupuncture (much needed after today) and hopefully we will find a home which would want to take in a vagrant such as myself. In the words of The Simpsons: "Nothin' beats the hobo life, stabbin' folks with your hobo knife."
