Monday, November 14, 2005
HOMESTAY ENDS, BEN GETS ANOTHER HAIRCUT, OUR VERY OWN SOAP OPERA
Let me start off by saying that my hair is now blonde. I bleached it for no particular reason other than we were at a hair salon and I felt like it. 2 side notes though...1) the guy bleaching my hair was so amused that I was doing it and it attracted such a crowd that it was free; 2) Chinese people really aren't all that good at dying hair: it's the right color, but not exactly even. I figure that since people already stare at me here, I might as well accentuate it.
After 5 weeks here, our homestay ended this morning. It was a lot of fun, one of the better homestays I've done. Since I will still be living in Kunming for a while, I will continue to visit them. We now set off for a weeklong service project near Lincang in southern Yunnan. We will be working with the villagers and a Christian NGO putting in pipes so that they can have running water. I'm looking forward to this, but have some concerns about how Christian the NGO will be. If there's no invoking Jesus I'll be fine. If there is, I'll be on a bus to Kunming to start my Thailand holiday a few weeks early.
The group has descended into a soap opera of sorts. Trevor is leaving because he wants to see other parts of Yunnan, bringing the group down to 5 people. I want to go north, as did Sar, Julia and Dean. Megan through a hissy fit when she found out we wanted to go somewhere cold (she's a Californian.) Now no one knows what we'll do but the group will probably split up to travel. We'll decide this afternoon. The group leaders...the ones being payed to manage things are standing by idly watching this all happen. One of the leaders is completely oblivious of all things around her and instead having us use our time to decide where to go, she had us spend an hour trying to come up with a broad definition of service "to help us reflect on the upcoming project." Well that's useful.
Quite opposite of Americans, Chinese people say "I'm sorry" for everything and hardly say "thank you." In Chinese if one says xie xie, "thank you," there does not exist an exact phrase for "your welcome." There are a number of ways Chinese people will respond:
1) Bu yong xie - no use thanks
2) Bu keqi - no so polite
3) Mei guanxi - don't worry
4) Mei wenti - no problem
5) something which means "it's my job"
The problem with mei wenti is that it uses the word wenti (problem) using Chinese logic, (remember logic is a word that didn't exist in Chinese) it is not good to say "no problem" since it has the word problem in it. It is not good to use the word problem because it implies there is a problem, even if you are saying "no problem." Anyone follow? It took me a while to comprehend this one. However, now I say suay bien meaning "whatever."
Let me start off by saying that my hair is now blonde. I bleached it for no particular reason other than we were at a hair salon and I felt like it. 2 side notes though...1) the guy bleaching my hair was so amused that I was doing it and it attracted such a crowd that it was free; 2) Chinese people really aren't all that good at dying hair: it's the right color, but not exactly even. I figure that since people already stare at me here, I might as well accentuate it.
After 5 weeks here, our homestay ended this morning. It was a lot of fun, one of the better homestays I've done. Since I will still be living in Kunming for a while, I will continue to visit them. We now set off for a weeklong service project near Lincang in southern Yunnan. We will be working with the villagers and a Christian NGO putting in pipes so that they can have running water. I'm looking forward to this, but have some concerns about how Christian the NGO will be. If there's no invoking Jesus I'll be fine. If there is, I'll be on a bus to Kunming to start my Thailand holiday a few weeks early.
The group has descended into a soap opera of sorts. Trevor is leaving because he wants to see other parts of Yunnan, bringing the group down to 5 people. I want to go north, as did Sar, Julia and Dean. Megan through a hissy fit when she found out we wanted to go somewhere cold (she's a Californian.) Now no one knows what we'll do but the group will probably split up to travel. We'll decide this afternoon. The group leaders...the ones being payed to manage things are standing by idly watching this all happen. One of the leaders is completely oblivious of all things around her and instead having us use our time to decide where to go, she had us spend an hour trying to come up with a broad definition of service "to help us reflect on the upcoming project." Well that's useful.
Quite opposite of Americans, Chinese people say "I'm sorry" for everything and hardly say "thank you." In Chinese if one says xie xie, "thank you," there does not exist an exact phrase for "your welcome." There are a number of ways Chinese people will respond:
1) Bu yong xie - no use thanks
2) Bu keqi - no so polite
3) Mei guanxi - don't worry
4) Mei wenti - no problem
5) something which means "it's my job"
The problem with mei wenti is that it uses the word wenti (problem) using Chinese logic, (remember logic is a word that didn't exist in Chinese) it is not good to say "no problem" since it has the word problem in it. It is not good to use the word problem because it implies there is a problem, even if you are saying "no problem." Anyone follow? It took me a while to comprehend this one. However, now I say suay bien meaning "whatever."
