Thursday, December 15, 2005
WAL-MART, CLASSES AND CHINESE LOGIC
I found out today that the gate outside the complex I live in closes at midnight. If i arrive after 12, I have to knock and wake the security guard. However, if it were that simple it wouldn't be China. The security guard is a little old lady with no teeth and to get in I have to pay her 1RMB per hour after midnight I arrive (i.e. if I arrive at 3am, I give her 3 RMB.) It's an interesting concept, though I've never heard of it anywhere else. Today I gave her 50RMBand told her that this would cover my next few months here. She was happy and surprised to be getting the money up front, and then in traditional Chinese fashion tried to get a little more from me. She pulled out a 5000 Dong(vietnam) coin and a 10 Won(korea) coin and told me they were worth 5000 and 10RMB respectively. She then asked me how much I wanted to give her for the coins. The answer was nothing, which she finally accepted and walked away after 15 minutes of explaining to me in Chinese why I should buy them from her.
Classes continued. My teacher didn't like my new Chinese name, since ben isn't a Chinese surname. She has therefor taken to calling me jia min which "is good Chinese name." I taught the 4 year-olds again. We did a lot more singing and they did a lot more paying attention. I am, however looking forward to getting the 11 and 12 year-old class next week.
Went to Wal-Mart today and bought some furnishings for my appartiment, including a DVD player. Wal-Mart undercuts local prices everywhere they go. This is even true in a country as cheap as China. My top of the line DVD player was $20. Unfortunately, in keeping with the Wal-Mart tradition, none of the employees had any idea where anything was. This, compounded with the fact that no one there spoke English made it an interesting shopping experience. For lunch I went to KFC (since it is right next to Wal-Mart) and met a Christian doctor from Philadelphia who came to China to do the work of the Lord by teaching local hospitals emergency medicine. Apparently, emergency medicine here is equivalent to how it was in 1970's America. Anyone reading this who knows what emergency medicine was like in the US in the 1970's, please fill me in.
I found out today that the gate outside the complex I live in closes at midnight. If i arrive after 12, I have to knock and wake the security guard. However, if it were that simple it wouldn't be China. The security guard is a little old lady with no teeth and to get in I have to pay her 1RMB per hour after midnight I arrive (i.e. if I arrive at 3am, I give her 3 RMB.) It's an interesting concept, though I've never heard of it anywhere else. Today I gave her 50RMBand told her that this would cover my next few months here. She was happy and surprised to be getting the money up front, and then in traditional Chinese fashion tried to get a little more from me. She pulled out a 5000 Dong(vietnam) coin and a 10 Won(korea) coin and told me they were worth 5000 and 10RMB respectively. She then asked me how much I wanted to give her for the coins. The answer was nothing, which she finally accepted and walked away after 15 minutes of explaining to me in Chinese why I should buy them from her.
Classes continued. My teacher didn't like my new Chinese name, since ben isn't a Chinese surname. She has therefor taken to calling me jia min which "is good Chinese name." I taught the 4 year-olds again. We did a lot more singing and they did a lot more paying attention. I am, however looking forward to getting the 11 and 12 year-old class next week.
Went to Wal-Mart today and bought some furnishings for my appartiment, including a DVD player. Wal-Mart undercuts local prices everywhere they go. This is even true in a country as cheap as China. My top of the line DVD player was $20. Unfortunately, in keeping with the Wal-Mart tradition, none of the employees had any idea where anything was. This, compounded with the fact that no one there spoke English made it an interesting shopping experience. For lunch I went to KFC (since it is right next to Wal-Mart) and met a Christian doctor from Philadelphia who came to China to do the work of the Lord by teaching local hospitals emergency medicine. Apparently, emergency medicine here is equivalent to how it was in 1970's America. Anyone reading this who knows what emergency medicine was like in the US in the 1970's, please fill me in.
