Tuesday, February 28, 2006
THE BURMESE BORDER
With my school closed for a week, I decided to go on a little trip. I went to Ruili (pron. Ray-lee,) a Chinese town on the Burmese border. There is not much in Ruili, but Mo, a Burmese guy who is a friend of a friend owns a guest house there. For 15RMB ($2) a night I had my own thatched hut, bed and mosquito net. It was a cozy place, and as far as I could tell, I was the only person staying there (and the only foreigner for 100 miles.)
My first day in Ruili I wandered around until I came to the Jade Market. Almost all of the best jade in the world is mined in Burma, then transported to Ruili where it is disseminated to the world. There were polished stones and uncut ones, ranging in size from a golf ball to a car. If I knew anything about jade I would have bought some. However, I don't. I wound up spending about 4 hours playing cards and majiang with the vendors at the market. I won 10RMB.
The next day went to Jiegow, the town 4km from Ruili that is the actual border. I don't know what I was expecting of the border, but I guess somehing like a river or a bridge or something. The border was just a fence, and not even a very high one. I touched Burma then decided to wander around Jiegow. After a few minutes, a young Burmese girl approached my and to my surprise said in perfect English, "where are you from?" After I answered her, the next thing she said was "are you alone?" Ding Ding Ding. Alarm bells go off in my head telling me I'm about to get robbed. I say no, but she can clearly see I'm lying. I start walking and she runs to 2 teenage boys, says something in Burmese and they start to follow me. I tried to lose them for about 5 minutes before I came to a hotel. I ducked inside and jus sat there. The kids stopped outside of the hotel, and then 4 motorcycles pulled up with 2 guys on them each. They all were heatedly talking and looking around and would occaisionally point in my direction. After 20 minutes in the hotel they seemed like they were leaving so I snuck out the back and took the first taxi I could get back to the guesthouse.
My next few days were spent exploring Ruili. Ruili is an abnormality in China. The town is deserted during the day. At around 10pm the clubs open and people go out. Apparently Ruili is known for 3 things: gambling, prostitution and drugs. The Chinese government even advertises the prostitution: "come see the true hospitality of Kachin (ethnic minority group) women" and so forth. This coupled wih a huge supply of heroin from Burma, gives Ruili the highest concentration of people with HIV in any town outside of Africa. AIDS is a problem that the CHinese government has only recently acknowledged and is now trying to fix. In Chinese ai zi bing means "love sickness." Thats an interesting way to describe AIDS.
Now, I'm back in Kunming. My English class has been complaining that the class was too easy, so I decided to show them what it is like for me to learn Chinese. Here, one work can mean many different things depending on how it's pronounced. Also, characters can have multiple meanings as well. Last night was my revenge. Thank you to my Aunt Ruth for providing the inspiration for this. In class we did difficult English sentences. The best two were "the soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert," and "since there is no time like the present, he thought it time to present the present." I know some of you native English speakers who just read that had trouble. The class was horrified, but we went over each word and explained the different meanings. I think they ended up liking it. At least it wasn't too easy for them.
My Chinese teacher is now teaching 8 classes a day. My morning class has been moved this week to 8am. Its hard to think that early in the morning. Thankfully, she felt the same way, and next week, class will be in the afternoon.
With my school closed for a week, I decided to go on a little trip. I went to Ruili (pron. Ray-lee,) a Chinese town on the Burmese border. There is not much in Ruili, but Mo, a Burmese guy who is a friend of a friend owns a guest house there. For 15RMB ($2) a night I had my own thatched hut, bed and mosquito net. It was a cozy place, and as far as I could tell, I was the only person staying there (and the only foreigner for 100 miles.)
My first day in Ruili I wandered around until I came to the Jade Market. Almost all of the best jade in the world is mined in Burma, then transported to Ruili where it is disseminated to the world. There were polished stones and uncut ones, ranging in size from a golf ball to a car. If I knew anything about jade I would have bought some. However, I don't. I wound up spending about 4 hours playing cards and majiang with the vendors at the market. I won 10RMB.
The next day went to Jiegow, the town 4km from Ruili that is the actual border. I don't know what I was expecting of the border, but I guess somehing like a river or a bridge or something. The border was just a fence, and not even a very high one. I touched Burma then decided to wander around Jiegow. After a few minutes, a young Burmese girl approached my and to my surprise said in perfect English, "where are you from?" After I answered her, the next thing she said was "are you alone?" Ding Ding Ding. Alarm bells go off in my head telling me I'm about to get robbed. I say no, but she can clearly see I'm lying. I start walking and she runs to 2 teenage boys, says something in Burmese and they start to follow me. I tried to lose them for about 5 minutes before I came to a hotel. I ducked inside and jus sat there. The kids stopped outside of the hotel, and then 4 motorcycles pulled up with 2 guys on them each. They all were heatedly talking and looking around and would occaisionally point in my direction. After 20 minutes in the hotel they seemed like they were leaving so I snuck out the back and took the first taxi I could get back to the guesthouse.
My next few days were spent exploring Ruili. Ruili is an abnormality in China. The town is deserted during the day. At around 10pm the clubs open and people go out. Apparently Ruili is known for 3 things: gambling, prostitution and drugs. The Chinese government even advertises the prostitution: "come see the true hospitality of Kachin (ethnic minority group) women" and so forth. This coupled wih a huge supply of heroin from Burma, gives Ruili the highest concentration of people with HIV in any town outside of Africa. AIDS is a problem that the CHinese government has only recently acknowledged and is now trying to fix. In Chinese ai zi bing means "love sickness." Thats an interesting way to describe AIDS.
Now, I'm back in Kunming. My English class has been complaining that the class was too easy, so I decided to show them what it is like for me to learn Chinese. Here, one work can mean many different things depending on how it's pronounced. Also, characters can have multiple meanings as well. Last night was my revenge. Thank you to my Aunt Ruth for providing the inspiration for this. In class we did difficult English sentences. The best two were "the soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert," and "since there is no time like the present, he thought it time to present the present." I know some of you native English speakers who just read that had trouble. The class was horrified, but we went over each word and explained the different meanings. I think they ended up liking it. At least it wasn't too easy for them.
My Chinese teacher is now teaching 8 classes a day. My morning class has been moved this week to 8am. Its hard to think that early in the morning. Thankfully, she felt the same way, and next week, class will be in the afternoon.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
DELICIOUS, NUTRITIOUS BABY; CHINGLISH & SOME POLITICS
I taught class Wednesday. In the book we were talking about clothing and popular fashions. We discussed pop-Chinese fashion which as my class described it is basically an imitation of "hip-hop style." As such, I couldn't resist teaching them some American slang. I taught them "bling-bling." There was some confusion, but hopefully they understood enough to introduce the term into their everyday use.
The next section of the book was "Have You Ever Ridden a Camel" - Unusual Things To Do. We talked about bungee jumping, then I asked them what unusual activities they could do in China. I came up with the first one, at the night market in Beijing you can eat a fried scorpion. I then opened it up to the class. My friend started it off with "In China, you can eat babies." That threw me for a loop and I called a break. After I gathered myself, I asked the class if they knew of people eating babies. A few said they had heard of abortion clinics in Guangzhou selling aborted babies to restaurants because they were good for your skin and kidneys. I couldn't sleep that night.
The next morning in class, I asked my Chinese teacher who speaks English well. I found out that Chinese people do not in fact eat babies. They do however eat placenta in traditional Chinese medicine. This was a bit of a relief. My students didn't know how to say placenta, but they knew it had to do with a baby, so they said "eat baby" instead. Still unsettling, but not as bad. My teacher told me a story that when she was a little girl she was very sick, so her mom made her some placenta. She realized what it was and refused to eat it, but has had friends who have. Apparently, ren rou - people meat (which is in fact what a placenta is) tastes like pork. It is delicious lightly fried with some ginger and orange. To quote Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers movies, "baby, the other other white meat." Enjoy your lunch. Before I get angry emails: THERE IS NO EVIDENCE CHINESE PEOPLE EAT BABIES, BUT PLACENTA IS EATEN AS MEDICINE HERE
Some Chinese media is simply a translation of American media sources. Every now and then they will make a mistake. Sometime they copy news stories that aren't in fact news, such as The Onion, a satirical newspaper. My friend who was here a few years ago tells me that Chinese news reported, "Continuing a trend that began in the Senate last November, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) announced Monday that 45 members of the House of representatives would be laid off and replaced by cost-efficient heavy legislating machinery." I like the Onion as much as anyone else, but Chinese news is already lacking in authority, This doesn't help.
I really like how the word dian (electric) is used in Chinese. Here are the English words and their translation into Chinese. There are others, but these are the ones I currently remember.
movie - electric shadow (dian ying)
elevator - electric stairs (dian ti)
phone - electric talking (dian hua)
computer - electric brain (dian nao)
television - electric picture (dian shi)
Wierd stuff has been going on lately. I'm not sure why, it's not a full moon. Thursday, during my Chinese class, another teacher came in and said "no class tomorrow." We all left and my teacher called me to tell me there was no class for a week. None of my friends in other classes were informed. Maybe their credentials are being questioned. Normally I'd be happy for a week vacation, but with only 6 more weeks here, I'd like to get in all the Chinese I can. Then, yesterday as I went to type my blog, the internet was crowded. I sat down and started typing when the staff came around and told everyone they needed to sign off. They didn't give anyone a reason then kicked everyone out. Hmm.
And now for some politics. When I was in Thailand, I wrote:
"The King of Thailand is beloved by all Thai people, but has no real power. He's done great things for the country and most citizens would lay down their lives for him. The government is ruled by the Prime Minister, Thaksin. He controls 12% of the economy singlehandedly and has been elected 4 terms. However, people despise him. He is re-electied because he can buy votes in the north. He has continuously tried to consolidate his power (like a certain US president) and last week forced the King to sign a law that said the King could no longer sign laws (anyone see the irony?) In Bangkok there are massive student led weekly anti-Thaksin rallies. The King could tell Thaksin to leave and he would have to, since at the King's request, the entire population would drag Thaksin through the streets."
Earlier this week, Thaksin met with the King, then immediately dissolved the government calling elections 3 years early. There will be a new election in April, but since Thaksin can buy votes, he will win again.
Good news from America, two of the great thinkers of the Neo-Conservative movement have just spoken out. A few days ago, Francis Fukuyama, one of the founders of the Neocon ideology declared the movement a failure and said the Iraq war was a mistake. He then compared Bush policies to 'Leninism.' Today, WIlliam F. Buckley, a staunch supporter of going to war with Iraq said the war was a failure and that George Bush needs to reverse course. Maybe things are working themselves out.
I taught class Wednesday. In the book we were talking about clothing and popular fashions. We discussed pop-Chinese fashion which as my class described it is basically an imitation of "hip-hop style." As such, I couldn't resist teaching them some American slang. I taught them "bling-bling." There was some confusion, but hopefully they understood enough to introduce the term into their everyday use.
The next section of the book was "Have You Ever Ridden a Camel" - Unusual Things To Do. We talked about bungee jumping, then I asked them what unusual activities they could do in China. I came up with the first one, at the night market in Beijing you can eat a fried scorpion. I then opened it up to the class. My friend started it off with "In China, you can eat babies." That threw me for a loop and I called a break. After I gathered myself, I asked the class if they knew of people eating babies. A few said they had heard of abortion clinics in Guangzhou selling aborted babies to restaurants because they were good for your skin and kidneys. I couldn't sleep that night.
The next morning in class, I asked my Chinese teacher who speaks English well. I found out that Chinese people do not in fact eat babies. They do however eat placenta in traditional Chinese medicine. This was a bit of a relief. My students didn't know how to say placenta, but they knew it had to do with a baby, so they said "eat baby" instead. Still unsettling, but not as bad. My teacher told me a story that when she was a little girl she was very sick, so her mom made her some placenta. She realized what it was and refused to eat it, but has had friends who have. Apparently, ren rou - people meat (which is in fact what a placenta is) tastes like pork. It is delicious lightly fried with some ginger and orange. To quote Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers movies, "baby, the other other white meat." Enjoy your lunch. Before I get angry emails: THERE IS NO EVIDENCE CHINESE PEOPLE EAT BABIES, BUT PLACENTA IS EATEN AS MEDICINE HERE
Some Chinese media is simply a translation of American media sources. Every now and then they will make a mistake. Sometime they copy news stories that aren't in fact news, such as The Onion, a satirical newspaper. My friend who was here a few years ago tells me that Chinese news reported, "Continuing a trend that began in the Senate last November, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) announced Monday that 45 members of the House of representatives would be laid off and replaced by cost-efficient heavy legislating machinery." I like the Onion as much as anyone else, but Chinese news is already lacking in authority, This doesn't help.
I really like how the word dian (electric) is used in Chinese. Here are the English words and their translation into Chinese. There are others, but these are the ones I currently remember.
movie - electric shadow (dian ying)
elevator - electric stairs (dian ti)
phone - electric talking (dian hua)
computer - electric brain (dian nao)
television - electric picture (dian shi)
Wierd stuff has been going on lately. I'm not sure why, it's not a full moon. Thursday, during my Chinese class, another teacher came in and said "no class tomorrow." We all left and my teacher called me to tell me there was no class for a week. None of my friends in other classes were informed. Maybe their credentials are being questioned. Normally I'd be happy for a week vacation, but with only 6 more weeks here, I'd like to get in all the Chinese I can. Then, yesterday as I went to type my blog, the internet was crowded. I sat down and started typing when the staff came around and told everyone they needed to sign off. They didn't give anyone a reason then kicked everyone out. Hmm.
And now for some politics. When I was in Thailand, I wrote:
"The King of Thailand is beloved by all Thai people, but has no real power. He's done great things for the country and most citizens would lay down their lives for him. The government is ruled by the Prime Minister, Thaksin. He controls 12% of the economy singlehandedly and has been elected 4 terms. However, people despise him. He is re-electied because he can buy votes in the north. He has continuously tried to consolidate his power (like a certain US president) and last week forced the King to sign a law that said the King could no longer sign laws (anyone see the irony?) In Bangkok there are massive student led weekly anti-Thaksin rallies. The King could tell Thaksin to leave and he would have to, since at the King's request, the entire population would drag Thaksin through the streets."
Earlier this week, Thaksin met with the King, then immediately dissolved the government calling elections 3 years early. There will be a new election in April, but since Thaksin can buy votes, he will win again.
Good news from America, two of the great thinkers of the Neo-Conservative movement have just spoken out. A few days ago, Francis Fukuyama, one of the founders of the Neocon ideology declared the movement a failure and said the Iraq war was a mistake. He then compared Bush policies to 'Leninism.' Today, WIlliam F. Buckley, a staunch supporter of going to war with Iraq said the war was a failure and that George Bush needs to reverse course. Maybe things are working themselves out.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
A CHINESE WEDDING
It has rained twice in the last 2 days. For a town where it is pretty dry year-round this is a nice change. Winter lasted 2 months and was mildly cold (but nothing compared to back home.) Now, it seems winter is over. It has been getting warmer and more pleasant, though it still gets cold at night. I really like the rain. It's one of the things I've missed the most from home. Now it's back. Hopefully for a while.
Friday afternoon, I recieved a call from my homestay family. I couldn't understand them, but i knew I heard "wedding" and "5 o'clock" so I put on my nicest clothes here and waited. At the entrance, the bride and groom (cousins of my homestay family) were standing outside greeting guests. They each held a tray of cigarettes, candy and peanuts to offer the guests. We went upstairs to a banquet hall with about 700 people. After sitting down near the front, the bride and groom entered in a shower of confetti. They stood on the stage and spoke for about 10 minutes. I didn't understand any of it, and it didn't look like there was a priest or government official leading the ceremony but after talking for 10 minutes, it was done and I guess they were officially married. To start the banquet the groom poured a bottle of Champagne over a pyramid of glasses symbolizing (I am making up what this means) overflowing prosperity for their marriage (it would mean something like that though.) We then ate.
The first course that came out was a turtle. It was whole and about the size of my head. I don't know what kind of turtle it was. I also had no idea how to eat it. It was whole, shell and all and I just had chopsticks. After being thoroughly amused, some of the young children at the table showed me what part to eat and how to eat it. It was tasty, but like all Yunnan food it was a bit too spicy. Other courses were fish, shrimp, duck, pork and some vegetable dishes. The food was really good and there were a lot of people, but aside for a girl in a wedding dress, I don't know I would've guessed it was a wedding.
It has rained twice in the last 2 days. For a town where it is pretty dry year-round this is a nice change. Winter lasted 2 months and was mildly cold (but nothing compared to back home.) Now, it seems winter is over. It has been getting warmer and more pleasant, though it still gets cold at night. I really like the rain. It's one of the things I've missed the most from home. Now it's back. Hopefully for a while.
Friday afternoon, I recieved a call from my homestay family. I couldn't understand them, but i knew I heard "wedding" and "5 o'clock" so I put on my nicest clothes here and waited. At the entrance, the bride and groom (cousins of my homestay family) were standing outside greeting guests. They each held a tray of cigarettes, candy and peanuts to offer the guests. We went upstairs to a banquet hall with about 700 people. After sitting down near the front, the bride and groom entered in a shower of confetti. They stood on the stage and spoke for about 10 minutes. I didn't understand any of it, and it didn't look like there was a priest or government official leading the ceremony but after talking for 10 minutes, it was done and I guess they were officially married. To start the banquet the groom poured a bottle of Champagne over a pyramid of glasses symbolizing (I am making up what this means) overflowing prosperity for their marriage (it would mean something like that though.) We then ate.
The first course that came out was a turtle. It was whole and about the size of my head. I don't know what kind of turtle it was. I also had no idea how to eat it. It was whole, shell and all and I just had chopsticks. After being thoroughly amused, some of the young children at the table showed me what part to eat and how to eat it. It was tasty, but like all Yunnan food it was a bit too spicy. Other courses were fish, shrimp, duck, pork and some vegetable dishes. The food was really good and there were a lot of people, but aside for a girl in a wedding dress, I don't know I would've guessed it was a wedding.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
BLACK SOCIETY & THE LITTLE NEW YEAR
I was out with my friends Ada and Myron (both Chinese) the other night when Myron decided to tease Ada.
"When she grows up Ada wants to be the leader of black society."
Well that stopped me dead in my tracks. "Wait, black society, like black people?"
"Yes, black people."
"There are no black people in China, and you guys hate the few that are here."
It took about 15 minutes to learn that the criminal aspect of society here is called "black society" because they are shady and do illegal things. Myron was saying Ada wants to lead the criminal society in China, not black people worldwide. It will be difficult for Ada to lead criminal society since the Army doesn't take women.
Ada just joined my English class. Of the 8ish people in my class, 2 are my friends and one is my stalker. John hasn't been so bad lately. He came to class with his boyfriend (I'm sorry, that's just speculation...his "special friend" who he's always touching in class) and brother and we went to lunch. Good food and his brother is my age, so it was cool and John was under wraps. I then went to John's house for dinner. The house was covered with pictures of teenage Chinese guys and boy bands. They tried to get me to sing Backstreet Boys. Vomit. Afterwards, his father cooked to celebrate Little Chinese New Years.
Xiao Xin Nian is the farmer's New Years. I don't know why it's 2 weeks later, but we ate New Year's food (sticky rice, spring rolls) and then watched some fireworks. They were minimal compared to Shanghai on the real New Years but I still heard them all night.
8 is the luckiest number in China. It is super auspicious and brings luck and riches. Businesses try to have phone numbers with as many eights as possible (888 8888.) It's something about 8 - ba sounding like fa meaning "to get rich." As such, the 2008 Olympics in Beijing will begin at 8pm on 08/08/08. Despite the numbers in their favor, I still don't think they'll pull it off. That having been said another important number is 88. My grandmother had her 88th birthday yesterday. Double eight is even more lucky and it will be a super lucky year for her. Zhu ni sheng ri kuai le nai nai.
I was out with my friends Ada and Myron (both Chinese) the other night when Myron decided to tease Ada.
"When she grows up Ada wants to be the leader of black society."
Well that stopped me dead in my tracks. "Wait, black society, like black people?"
"Yes, black people."
"There are no black people in China, and you guys hate the few that are here."
It took about 15 minutes to learn that the criminal aspect of society here is called "black society" because they are shady and do illegal things. Myron was saying Ada wants to lead the criminal society in China, not black people worldwide. It will be difficult for Ada to lead criminal society since the Army doesn't take women.
Ada just joined my English class. Of the 8ish people in my class, 2 are my friends and one is my stalker. John hasn't been so bad lately. He came to class with his boyfriend (I'm sorry, that's just speculation...his "special friend" who he's always touching in class) and brother and we went to lunch. Good food and his brother is my age, so it was cool and John was under wraps. I then went to John's house for dinner. The house was covered with pictures of teenage Chinese guys and boy bands. They tried to get me to sing Backstreet Boys. Vomit. Afterwards, his father cooked to celebrate Little Chinese New Years.
Xiao Xin Nian is the farmer's New Years. I don't know why it's 2 weeks later, but we ate New Year's food (sticky rice, spring rolls) and then watched some fireworks. They were minimal compared to Shanghai on the real New Years but I still heard them all night.
8 is the luckiest number in China. It is super auspicious and brings luck and riches. Businesses try to have phone numbers with as many eights as possible (888 8888.) It's something about 8 - ba sounding like fa meaning "to get rich." As such, the 2008 Olympics in Beijing will begin at 8pm on 08/08/08. Despite the numbers in their favor, I still don't think they'll pull it off. That having been said another important number is 88. My grandmother had her 88th birthday yesterday. Double eight is even more lucky and it will be a super lucky year for her. Zhu ni sheng ri kuai le nai nai.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
NEW CLASS & RANDOMNESS
I'm starting to get back into the swing of things here. I've started teaching again. My new class is a high school class. Tonight I had my first class with them. The first half hour was easy so I could feel out their English skills. They all spoke enough that they stopped me and told me to make class more difficult. OK. I can't picture any American students asking for the work to be more difficult. I finally figured out their level and we spent the class writing dialogues and practicing our conversation skills.
My new class has 2 people I already know. First was Myron, a friend who practices English with me while I practice Chinese with him. He happened to hear about Summit Language School and happened to be put in my class. The other sudent I know is my stalker, John (see last post.) John remained in line in class and now I can use the excuse "you can call me as much as you call your Chinese teachers (which is, I assume, none.)
Coca-Cola, that ever so evil (but delicious) beverage has 100% brand name recognition worldwide. Anywhere you go you can get a Coke. Yes, they supported Apartheid and Naziism and actively kill South American trade unionists but what a great marketing campaign they run. Had they so desired, they could have called their product Kou ke kou le (kou = koh) but they decided to change it. In China, if you'd like a Coke you ask for a Ke kou ke le. The reason this is is because Coke chose to alter their name here. While kou ke kou le is meaningless, ke kou ke le means "good for your mouth - makes you happy." How's that for a brand name.
Apparently, I look like Justin Timberlake. I don't see it but I've heard that from a handful of Chinese people here. However, it is usually followed by a "but I think foreigners all look the same." Where have I heard that before?
Chinese people know about 5 universities in America. I've been asked about 100 times if I go to Ha Fo Da Xue (Harvard.) The other schools they've heard of are Princeton, Penn, Yale and Columbia. Since Harvard is prestegious they all want their kids to go there and it's usually the parents who ask about Harvard. For the most part I tell them I go to the University of Colorado. They all find this to be impressive, since they've heard of Colorado, so its university must be impressive. I used to get sick of the question and tell people that, "yes, I do go to Harvard." The downside to this answer I discovered is that the next question is ALWAYS, "can you help my child get in there?" Incidentally, if anyone has any Harvard connections, I know 20 Chinese people off the top of my head who would like to go there. I know I don't.
I'm starting to get back into the swing of things here. I've started teaching again. My new class is a high school class. Tonight I had my first class with them. The first half hour was easy so I could feel out their English skills. They all spoke enough that they stopped me and told me to make class more difficult. OK. I can't picture any American students asking for the work to be more difficult. I finally figured out their level and we spent the class writing dialogues and practicing our conversation skills.
My new class has 2 people I already know. First was Myron, a friend who practices English with me while I practice Chinese with him. He happened to hear about Summit Language School and happened to be put in my class. The other sudent I know is my stalker, John (see last post.) John remained in line in class and now I can use the excuse "you can call me as much as you call your Chinese teachers (which is, I assume, none.)
Coca-Cola, that ever so evil (but delicious) beverage has 100% brand name recognition worldwide. Anywhere you go you can get a Coke. Yes, they supported Apartheid and Naziism and actively kill South American trade unionists but what a great marketing campaign they run. Had they so desired, they could have called their product Kou ke kou le (kou = koh) but they decided to change it. In China, if you'd like a Coke you ask for a Ke kou ke le. The reason this is is because Coke chose to alter their name here. While kou ke kou le is meaningless, ke kou ke le means "good for your mouth - makes you happy." How's that for a brand name.
Apparently, I look like Justin Timberlake. I don't see it but I've heard that from a handful of Chinese people here. However, it is usually followed by a "but I think foreigners all look the same." Where have I heard that before?
Chinese people know about 5 universities in America. I've been asked about 100 times if I go to Ha Fo Da Xue (Harvard.) The other schools they've heard of are Princeton, Penn, Yale and Columbia. Since Harvard is prestegious they all want their kids to go there and it's usually the parents who ask about Harvard. For the most part I tell them I go to the University of Colorado. They all find this to be impressive, since they've heard of Colorado, so its university must be impressive. I used to get sick of the question and tell people that, "yes, I do go to Harvard." The downside to this answer I discovered is that the next question is ALWAYS, "can you help my child get in there?" Incidentally, if anyone has any Harvard connections, I know 20 Chinese people off the top of my head who would like to go there. I know I don't.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
SHANGHAI, XINCHANG & THE YEAR OF THE DOGG
To celebrate Chinese New Years I went to Shanghai. I was supposed to be going with Jason and Maggie from the language school but last minute they cancelled and I went alone. I stayed with Jason's friend Hollie. My first day there we did a quick tour of Shanghai. Shanghai has more enormous building than I'v ever seen. There are hundreds of building at least 60 stories high. I am told Shanghai has more high construction cranes than any other city in the world. I saw the JinMao tower which is apparently higher than the Sears Tower in Chicago. it didn't look it at first but when I got close it looked gigantic.
That night (1/28) was New Year's Eve. On the way back to Hollie's we bought some fireworks then went out to party. Our first stop of the night was a dinner party with about 20 people, most Italians. We drank red wine for about 3 hours, had a homemade lasagna and started to set off fireworks. There is a good and bad side of Chinese fireworks. The plus is that all of the fireworks in the world are made in China so they're readily available and cheap. The minus is they're all made in China, which says something about their workmanship. We started with Roman Candles out of their 30th story window. Mine fizzled out and as I tapped it to figure out the problem it exploded backwards burning a hole into my shirt. Fortunately, I was fine and it was a Grateful Dead shirt. After all, what's a Grateful Dead shirt without some holes and powder burns.
At 11:30 we went outside and began setting off fireworks. for an hour we, and 16,000,000 other people set off fireworks. The already smoggy city settled into a 3 day haze while fireworks went off in all directions. You know the red-paper-wrapped firecrackers taht you se in Chinatown? Each string is 1000 firecrackers long. I myself set off 20,000 firecrackers plus the fireworks. After it was done every street in Shanghai was covered in shards of red paper. Since we were celebrating Chinese New Years, the fireworks went 24 hours per day for a week.
At midnight we welcomed the Year of the Dog. In Chinese there are a few different ways to wish someone a happy new year. Xin nian kuai le literally means "new year happy." Gong xi fa cai means "wish you get rich." The last one is Gou nian - wang wang this means "year of the dog - wang wang." Wang wang means both "get rich" and is the sound a dog makes in Chinese. Because of the wordplay, this is my favorite one. Since this is the Year of the Dog do we age 7x as fast? I think the answer is yes. In America I am 20 years old. Here I am now 22. How can that be? Simple (well, not really.) In China, you are age 1 when you are born, thus I would be 21 here. Since here, you age a year at New Years, I am now 22. It's only unofficially 22, until my 21st (real 21st) birthday, then I'm officially 22.
At around 2am, we went to Bonbon, a club in downtown Shanghai. It was full of people and we drank (wine, champagne, beer, vodka, tequilla, sanbucca) and danced until 6am. THIS PART HAS BEEN SELF-CENSORED DUE TO INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT. At 9am I went home and went to sleep.
On the 30th I took a 3 hour bus ride to Xinchang, the hometown of my writing tutor, Money. Xinchang, a town I had been told was tiny, a town no one in Shanghai had heard of was 430,000 people. For some perspective on that number, it is larger than Atlanta and Miami and would be the 40th largest city in America. Most people in Xinchang couldn't even speak Mandarin let alone English. They all speak their local dialect, Xinchanghua. About half the people I met spoke a little Mandarin and only Money and his friend spoke English. Money's family had a big house that was very sparsely furnished. They did however have Western toilets. Since Chinese New Years is a weeklong national holiday where everyone spends time with their families I was invited to join their family in the celebrations. As I arrived the neighbors stopped by to look at me and wath me eat. That night we played Majiang. They asked if I minded playing for money - 25RMB($3)/game and I said sure. I won all 4 games, beating Money's grandmother, aunt and father and winning a total of 136RMB ($17.) The money was a nice touch but I love that I could beat Chinese people at the game they invented.
Next morning I slept until 10am and had a bowl of dumplings for breakfast. An hour later we went to a relatives house for lunch. I know they feast for Chinese New Years but I suspect since I am the first foreigner they've ever met and they wanted to impress me did did extra. Lunch was for 20 people. The 12 men sat in one room while the women and children were in another. Our table had 22 different dishes plus rice whiskey and wine and beer. Since I was the guest I had to sample a bit of every dish. Most were good, such as the quail or pork. Spicy pig intestines were not. We then walked about a mile to another relative's house and had another 20 course meal. Alltold I tried about 50 different dishes - every meat from chicken to crab to dog and every part of an animal from shrimp heads to pig intestines to dog feet. We then walked 4 or 5 miles to a temple carved into granite. It was neat.
After that it was back to Money's house for an evening party in my honor. About 40 people showed up - all Money's family and neighbors and we started the party. Before the party we took part in the favorite national pasttime of the Chinese - gambling. We started playing a dice game, where you role 3 dice and try to roll certain things or the highest dice and bet money on it. One person at the table is the bank and it rotates. People were betting 10RMB per roll at the beginning and I lost about 100RMB. Then I understood the game. Bet low when you're not the banker, roll well when you are. That, coupled with the fact that I am extremely lucky won me 1600RMB($200) in an hour.
The the party began and they would ask me questions about America and I would answer (with Money's translation.) This was interspersed with my singing and children playing traditional instruments. We made it into game where after their question they could pick a piece of paper and win a prize. Some had nothing, others were things like candy and the big prizes were American cigarettes, a Philadelphia deck of cards, a few American Dollar bills and some Chinese money. There were questions about who I was, what I thought of China and America's relations with China. My favorite question was "Why do Americans wear clothes once and then throw them out?" It caught me off guard but I rebounded by pointing to my jeans which had been sewn about a dozen times and have some holes.
After the party we went back to gambling. At Money's suggestion, I placed 1000RMB in my room as winnings just so I wouldn't lose it all. I went downstairs again and started with 600RMB on the table. An hour and a half later I was up to 3400RMB($430) on the table. As my pile grew, so did the size of the bets people were making - 100 or 200RMB ($12 -$25) per person per hand. They were all compulsive gamblers and I am very lucky. At this point I started feeling bad. They were by no means poor, but winning $550 was ridiculous. Money informed me that his parents had lost $200 and I decided it was time to give some back. I made it very clear this was my intention and started laying out 300RMB at a time. 1 won 6 consecutive roles and near bankrupted almost everyone at the table. It took 2 hours but I finally managed to lose all the money I had at the table. I was cheering as much as they were when they won and trying to lose the RMB and it still took me 2 hours to do. I'm not one to usually give out money but I left up 1000RMB and everyone left happy, instead of feeding me to the wild dogs, so I guess it was a win-win.
The next day I went with Money and his friends to Da Fo Shan, a big park in town. The first thing you see by the entrance and wooden houses and platforms from Kung Fu movies they've filmed there. Next to that there were some carnival games. Enticed, I shot balloons with a bb gun. The guns were crap and I hit 6 of 10 balloons so I won a Buddha bracelet, supposed to bring me riches. We'll see if it's effective. We then walked through caves and saw 100ft high stone carvings of Buddha and traditional Chinese imagery. What Buddhist rock park would be complete without dinosaurs? As we walked into the petrofied forest there was a dinosaur moving around. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on, but the best I can tell, to accentuate the petrofied wood they placed robotic dinosaurs that make "real life" sounds around the area. They even carved "fossils" into the rock. Anyone who will wonder why there is a picture of a dinosaur between my Buddha pictures, now you'll know why.
I have a Chinese stalker. His name is John, he is 15 years old (17 in China) and he calls me 30x/week. A student in one of my English classes, at the Xmas party he asked if he could "be my friend." An innocent enough question (for someone who speaks little English,) so I said yes. This last week I've gotten 60 text messages from him asking me where I am, what I'm doing, do I like Mickey Mouse, do I think Adidas is good and will I come to his house for dinner and meet his family. I was going to - but the fact that I've told him not to call me that much (or at all) in 3 languages, yet he still does - makes me not want to see him. If I don't pick up my phone he'll dial it every 5 minutes for 3 hours (has happened multiple times.) I'll turn off my ringer and see I missed 15 calls. Apparently he has also stalked Jason and Maggie at the school. I hope he will go away but it's been a month and a half so far. At least as far as stalkers go he's completely harmless, just annoying as hell.
I'm now back in Kunming, ready to study and do my think for a few months. I'm rapidly approaching five months into my trip. The original plan was to stay for 6 months. I know I want to stay more than another month, but I'm not sure how I should divide it up. At most I'll be here five more months, most likely four. I know I want a month or two of travel to Southeast Asia. I'm thinking about doing a month of service with the NGO I worked with in November. I still need to learn more Chinese. I think I might study 4 hrs/day until April, do a little time with the NGO then travel. I welcome any thoughts, comments or suggestions on my plan.
To celebrate Chinese New Years I went to Shanghai. I was supposed to be going with Jason and Maggie from the language school but last minute they cancelled and I went alone. I stayed with Jason's friend Hollie. My first day there we did a quick tour of Shanghai. Shanghai has more enormous building than I'v ever seen. There are hundreds of building at least 60 stories high. I am told Shanghai has more high construction cranes than any other city in the world. I saw the JinMao tower which is apparently higher than the Sears Tower in Chicago. it didn't look it at first but when I got close it looked gigantic.
That night (1/28) was New Year's Eve. On the way back to Hollie's we bought some fireworks then went out to party. Our first stop of the night was a dinner party with about 20 people, most Italians. We drank red wine for about 3 hours, had a homemade lasagna and started to set off fireworks. There is a good and bad side of Chinese fireworks. The plus is that all of the fireworks in the world are made in China so they're readily available and cheap. The minus is they're all made in China, which says something about their workmanship. We started with Roman Candles out of their 30th story window. Mine fizzled out and as I tapped it to figure out the problem it exploded backwards burning a hole into my shirt. Fortunately, I was fine and it was a Grateful Dead shirt. After all, what's a Grateful Dead shirt without some holes and powder burns.
At 11:30 we went outside and began setting off fireworks. for an hour we, and 16,000,000 other people set off fireworks. The already smoggy city settled into a 3 day haze while fireworks went off in all directions. You know the red-paper-wrapped firecrackers taht you se in Chinatown? Each string is 1000 firecrackers long. I myself set off 20,000 firecrackers plus the fireworks. After it was done every street in Shanghai was covered in shards of red paper. Since we were celebrating Chinese New Years, the fireworks went 24 hours per day for a week.
At midnight we welcomed the Year of the Dog. In Chinese there are a few different ways to wish someone a happy new year. Xin nian kuai le literally means "new year happy." Gong xi fa cai means "wish you get rich." The last one is Gou nian - wang wang this means "year of the dog - wang wang." Wang wang means both "get rich" and is the sound a dog makes in Chinese. Because of the wordplay, this is my favorite one. Since this is the Year of the Dog do we age 7x as fast? I think the answer is yes. In America I am 20 years old. Here I am now 22. How can that be? Simple (well, not really.) In China, you are age 1 when you are born, thus I would be 21 here. Since here, you age a year at New Years, I am now 22. It's only unofficially 22, until my 21st (real 21st) birthday, then I'm officially 22.
At around 2am, we went to Bonbon, a club in downtown Shanghai. It was full of people and we drank (wine, champagne, beer, vodka, tequilla, sanbucca) and danced until 6am. THIS PART HAS BEEN SELF-CENSORED DUE TO INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT. At 9am I went home and went to sleep.
On the 30th I took a 3 hour bus ride to Xinchang, the hometown of my writing tutor, Money. Xinchang, a town I had been told was tiny, a town no one in Shanghai had heard of was 430,000 people. For some perspective on that number, it is larger than Atlanta and Miami and would be the 40th largest city in America. Most people in Xinchang couldn't even speak Mandarin let alone English. They all speak their local dialect, Xinchanghua. About half the people I met spoke a little Mandarin and only Money and his friend spoke English. Money's family had a big house that was very sparsely furnished. They did however have Western toilets. Since Chinese New Years is a weeklong national holiday where everyone spends time with their families I was invited to join their family in the celebrations. As I arrived the neighbors stopped by to look at me and wath me eat. That night we played Majiang. They asked if I minded playing for money - 25RMB($3)/game and I said sure. I won all 4 games, beating Money's grandmother, aunt and father and winning a total of 136RMB ($17.) The money was a nice touch but I love that I could beat Chinese people at the game they invented.
Next morning I slept until 10am and had a bowl of dumplings for breakfast. An hour later we went to a relatives house for lunch. I know they feast for Chinese New Years but I suspect since I am the first foreigner they've ever met and they wanted to impress me did did extra. Lunch was for 20 people. The 12 men sat in one room while the women and children were in another. Our table had 22 different dishes plus rice whiskey and wine and beer. Since I was the guest I had to sample a bit of every dish. Most were good, such as the quail or pork. Spicy pig intestines were not. We then walked about a mile to another relative's house and had another 20 course meal. Alltold I tried about 50 different dishes - every meat from chicken to crab to dog and every part of an animal from shrimp heads to pig intestines to dog feet. We then walked 4 or 5 miles to a temple carved into granite. It was neat.
After that it was back to Money's house for an evening party in my honor. About 40 people showed up - all Money's family and neighbors and we started the party. Before the party we took part in the favorite national pasttime of the Chinese - gambling. We started playing a dice game, where you role 3 dice and try to roll certain things or the highest dice and bet money on it. One person at the table is the bank and it rotates. People were betting 10RMB per roll at the beginning and I lost about 100RMB. Then I understood the game. Bet low when you're not the banker, roll well when you are. That, coupled with the fact that I am extremely lucky won me 1600RMB($200) in an hour.
The the party began and they would ask me questions about America and I would answer (with Money's translation.) This was interspersed with my singing and children playing traditional instruments. We made it into game where after their question they could pick a piece of paper and win a prize. Some had nothing, others were things like candy and the big prizes were American cigarettes, a Philadelphia deck of cards, a few American Dollar bills and some Chinese money. There were questions about who I was, what I thought of China and America's relations with China. My favorite question was "Why do Americans wear clothes once and then throw them out?" It caught me off guard but I rebounded by pointing to my jeans which had been sewn about a dozen times and have some holes.
After the party we went back to gambling. At Money's suggestion, I placed 1000RMB in my room as winnings just so I wouldn't lose it all. I went downstairs again and started with 600RMB on the table. An hour and a half later I was up to 3400RMB($430) on the table. As my pile grew, so did the size of the bets people were making - 100 or 200RMB ($12 -$25) per person per hand. They were all compulsive gamblers and I am very lucky. At this point I started feeling bad. They were by no means poor, but winning $550 was ridiculous. Money informed me that his parents had lost $200 and I decided it was time to give some back. I made it very clear this was my intention and started laying out 300RMB at a time. 1 won 6 consecutive roles and near bankrupted almost everyone at the table. It took 2 hours but I finally managed to lose all the money I had at the table. I was cheering as much as they were when they won and trying to lose the RMB and it still took me 2 hours to do. I'm not one to usually give out money but I left up 1000RMB and everyone left happy, instead of feeding me to the wild dogs, so I guess it was a win-win.
The next day I went with Money and his friends to Da Fo Shan, a big park in town. The first thing you see by the entrance and wooden houses and platforms from Kung Fu movies they've filmed there. Next to that there were some carnival games. Enticed, I shot balloons with a bb gun. The guns were crap and I hit 6 of 10 balloons so I won a Buddha bracelet, supposed to bring me riches. We'll see if it's effective. We then walked through caves and saw 100ft high stone carvings of Buddha and traditional Chinese imagery. What Buddhist rock park would be complete without dinosaurs? As we walked into the petrofied forest there was a dinosaur moving around. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on, but the best I can tell, to accentuate the petrofied wood they placed robotic dinosaurs that make "real life" sounds around the area. They even carved "fossils" into the rock. Anyone who will wonder why there is a picture of a dinosaur between my Buddha pictures, now you'll know why.
I have a Chinese stalker. His name is John, he is 15 years old (17 in China) and he calls me 30x/week. A student in one of my English classes, at the Xmas party he asked if he could "be my friend." An innocent enough question (for someone who speaks little English,) so I said yes. This last week I've gotten 60 text messages from him asking me where I am, what I'm doing, do I like Mickey Mouse, do I think Adidas is good and will I come to his house for dinner and meet his family. I was going to - but the fact that I've told him not to call me that much (or at all) in 3 languages, yet he still does - makes me not want to see him. If I don't pick up my phone he'll dial it every 5 minutes for 3 hours (has happened multiple times.) I'll turn off my ringer and see I missed 15 calls. Apparently he has also stalked Jason and Maggie at the school. I hope he will go away but it's been a month and a half so far. At least as far as stalkers go he's completely harmless, just annoying as hell.
I'm now back in Kunming, ready to study and do my think for a few months. I'm rapidly approaching five months into my trip. The original plan was to stay for 6 months. I know I want to stay more than another month, but I'm not sure how I should divide it up. At most I'll be here five more months, most likely four. I know I want a month or two of travel to Southeast Asia. I'm thinking about doing a month of service with the NGO I worked with in November. I still need to learn more Chinese. I think I might study 4 hrs/day until April, do a little time with the NGO then travel. I welcome any thoughts, comments or suggestions on my plan.
