Saturday, July 21, 2007
FISHING FOR CHICKEN AT ARMY CAMP DURING A MONSOON
It's been raining for 4 days nonstop now. I wouldn't mind, except the streets are flooded and my shoes have holes in them. As the sewers fill they flood up onto the streets, so that the water is a foul smelling mix of rained out pollution, sewage and garbage. It is also rather disconcerting to walk by a manhole and see it pulsating from the water pressure. In typical Chinese fashion, people use brooms to try to sweep the water back into the sewers. It's working so well.
Staying with my former homestay family has been quite fun. I keep odd hours and come in at 4 or 5 am, but they've given me a key so I don't have to wake them. The other night we went to a hot pot restraurant. Hot pot is a Sichuan food that is basically a big bowl of soup that sits on a propane burner on your table. You order things and add them yourself. The soup contained a whole chicken and some Chinese herbs to begin with and we added some vegetables, pork, tofu and fish balls. Eating hot pot is like fishing for chicken using chopsticks. Sometimes you get lucky and pull out an edible piece, other times you get a foot or head.
Last night I went back to Summit Foreign Language School, my old job to visit former students and see Maggie, my ex-boss. It was good to see everyone, but somehow I got talked into teaching a class. After going through some basic conversational English, I taught them that their parents, teachers and government do not always act in their best interests and told them to always ask "why?" One of the first questions I got was "why does the American government care more about their children than the Chinese." Wow, I'm at a loss on that one. I'm not even sure its so. Any thoughts? At least the kids took what I had to say to heart. Hopefully it won't get them in too much trouble.
Summit now has a summer English Camp. It takes place at an Army base. The kids wear uniforms the whole time. When they're not learning English, they're practicing Kungfu or shooting AK47's and SKS's. This struck me as an odd place to have an English camp so I asked Maggie about it. It turns out her father was a General who oversaw the Chengdu Military Region and commanded over 1,000,000 troops, and he helped her facilitate the school and camp. These are good people to know and work for. Maggie is already planning for my return next year so I can resume teaching. Maybe next summer I will go to camp.
The other day I went with Tjasa and her Dragons group to a lesson on tea with my friend Rob, who is from Long Island. He has been here three years and has a tea export business. He talked for a bit about Chinese teas and we drank maybe 20 cups of tea. He was telling me that one of their larger customers is Trident Bookstore in Boulder, which recently bought 5 kilos of tea. I'll have to go there when I return to Colorado. Check out his website: An Dao (peaceful way) Teas http://www.andaotea.com
I've been playing a little game, asking foreigners who live here to describe Kunming in three words. I've had some interesting responses so far. My own three were: "cheap, relaxed, loud."
Giorgio, an Italian chose "non stop party."
Matt, a Brit chose "cheap, lazy, escape," as all the foreigners here are hiding from something back home.
Panya, an Aussie chose "aargghh, chhuch, thptu," her enunciation of Chinese people spitting.
Batiste, a Frenchman chose "drunk, stoned, wet."
Bike Mike, an American who has been here for 12 years chose "fucking hell." When I pointed out that was only two words, he added "yeah!"
It's been raining for 4 days nonstop now. I wouldn't mind, except the streets are flooded and my shoes have holes in them. As the sewers fill they flood up onto the streets, so that the water is a foul smelling mix of rained out pollution, sewage and garbage. It is also rather disconcerting to walk by a manhole and see it pulsating from the water pressure. In typical Chinese fashion, people use brooms to try to sweep the water back into the sewers. It's working so well.
Staying with my former homestay family has been quite fun. I keep odd hours and come in at 4 or 5 am, but they've given me a key so I don't have to wake them. The other night we went to a hot pot restraurant. Hot pot is a Sichuan food that is basically a big bowl of soup that sits on a propane burner on your table. You order things and add them yourself. The soup contained a whole chicken and some Chinese herbs to begin with and we added some vegetables, pork, tofu and fish balls. Eating hot pot is like fishing for chicken using chopsticks. Sometimes you get lucky and pull out an edible piece, other times you get a foot or head.
Last night I went back to Summit Foreign Language School, my old job to visit former students and see Maggie, my ex-boss. It was good to see everyone, but somehow I got talked into teaching a class. After going through some basic conversational English, I taught them that their parents, teachers and government do not always act in their best interests and told them to always ask "why?" One of the first questions I got was "why does the American government care more about their children than the Chinese." Wow, I'm at a loss on that one. I'm not even sure its so. Any thoughts? At least the kids took what I had to say to heart. Hopefully it won't get them in too much trouble.
Summit now has a summer English Camp. It takes place at an Army base. The kids wear uniforms the whole time. When they're not learning English, they're practicing Kungfu or shooting AK47's and SKS's. This struck me as an odd place to have an English camp so I asked Maggie about it. It turns out her father was a General who oversaw the Chengdu Military Region and commanded over 1,000,000 troops, and he helped her facilitate the school and camp. These are good people to know and work for. Maggie is already planning for my return next year so I can resume teaching. Maybe next summer I will go to camp.
The other day I went with Tjasa and her Dragons group to a lesson on tea with my friend Rob, who is from Long Island. He has been here three years and has a tea export business. He talked for a bit about Chinese teas and we drank maybe 20 cups of tea. He was telling me that one of their larger customers is Trident Bookstore in Boulder, which recently bought 5 kilos of tea. I'll have to go there when I return to Colorado. Check out his website: An Dao (peaceful way) Teas http://www.andaotea.com
I've been playing a little game, asking foreigners who live here to describe Kunming in three words. I've had some interesting responses so far. My own three were: "cheap, relaxed, loud."
Giorgio, an Italian chose "non stop party."
Matt, a Brit chose "cheap, lazy, escape," as all the foreigners here are hiding from something back home.
Panya, an Aussie chose "aargghh, chhuch, thptu," her enunciation of Chinese people spitting.
Batiste, a Frenchman chose "drunk, stoned, wet."
Bike Mike, an American who has been here for 12 years chose "fucking hell." When I pointed out that was only two words, he added "yeah!"
Labels: army, camp, homestay, hot pot, rainy season, summit, teaching
