November 2007 Journal
Another Week Down, and Almost Thanksgiving - Tuesday November 20, 2007I had food poisoning again yesterday. My fever was really bad, I felt nauseated, and I slept with crazy fevered delusions for about 20 hours. Today, I'm feeling a lot better. I knew my health would suffer a little in China, but I really didn't expect the food poisoning. I try to be careful, but when you live here every day, you drop your guard once in awhile. Routine makes you careless, and just one little slip will get contaminated food in your body. This time, it was undercooked shrimp.
Teaching is going well. This week, my students are bringing pick-up lines to class that they found on the internet. I enjoy seeing which lines they choose. In a few cases, my students have brought really dirty / suggestive pick-up lines that I have to explain. (If the line is too inappropriate, I tell them it means something less bad and most on.) They love the pick-up line activity. My students are all postgraduates, and yet they still have a middle school mentality in relation to the opposite gender. *hee hee* Boys and girls... together?! *hee hee*
I had a good weekend. On Friday night, I had 5 Chinese friends (a few of which are my students) over to play Monopoly with me. The game is entirely in Chinese. Emil, Wendy, Judy, Cherish, and Cindy came over. After a few rounds on the board, the four girls decided to team up. They pooled their property and money together to win. However, they weren't discrete enough about what they were doing, so Emil and I also teamed up. I got hotels up early enough to keep everyone else too poor to afford them, so in the end we won. It was a really fun night!
Saturday, I had a very relaxing day. I didn't do much - some cleaning, some slacking, video games and South Park. Saturday evening, I went to dinner with a few of the leaders in the local Communist Party. They treated Justin and I to a big banquet at the Zhenjiang Hotel. (It's one of the nicest places to eat in town!) The food was amazing - absolutely amazing! They served us hairy crabs, duck blood soup, fish, eel, goose, pork, and a sweet red wine. We were invited out to dinner with them so they could ask us to tutor one of their children. Apparently, Justin and I now have a new student. (How can you say no to a favor after a meal like that?)
After dinner, Nancy (Hu Ya Qin) came over to talk about "us". She's really confused because she likes me (like-likes me!) and she doesn't know what to do because I'll just be moving away in 7 months. She's worried about falling in love with me and having me leave the country. At first, we decided we would just keep things between us the way they had been - just continue to be friends. But she was crying, and she said that she has no control over how she feels, and she said that she doesn't want to just be my friend. Then we kissed. :) She's a pretty awesome girl, but the whole situation is very confusing for both of us... I like her, she likes me, but we're definitely star-crossed. I don't imagine things will ever work out for us. She agrees, but neither of us wants to stop seeing the other. Why are humans such masochists?!
Sunday, I went to Nan Shan Park with Bryan and two of his classmates (both girls). He brought a lot of food and baijiu, and after we hiked all over the park, we had a barbecue at the lakefront. We drank all of the baijiu while we were barbecuing our own food. He brought live shrimp to cook, and I think that's what gave me the food poisoning this time. Finally we stumbled to the bus stop and rode home.
Sunday evening after I sobered up a little, my friend Cherish came over to swap some music with me. She gave me a lot of Chinese songs and I gave her everything from Norah Jones to The Pixies. All of the Chinese music is what I would call "cheesy." The singer sings with way too much emotion, the songs are all about love, and it's actually a little annoying to listen to. It's not traditionally Chinese, but it's their take on American-style music. Really, "annoying" is the only adjective I can think to describe it. I bet it's great for karaoke at the KTV bars.
Aubrey's coming! She purchased her airline ticket. She'll land on February 18th and leave on March 1st. That's awesome. I've got to plan what we want to do together. I'm thinking we'll spend 3-4 days in Shanghai, 3 days in Nanjing, and a few days here in Zhenjiang. She wants to see some old, traditional parts of China, so I'll take her to the ancient part of my city - cobblestone streets, the Yangtze riverfront, and a few of the parks around town. I want to take her to Beijing with me, but it's so far from here. We'd have to spend 2 days just traveling, and that kind of sucks considering she'll be here for such a short time.
My hair is long. I haven't cut it since about August 10th. I don't think it's been this long in my entire life. :) I like it!
What a Trip to Shanghai - Tuesday November 13, 2007
Is November really halfway over?! On Friday, I will celebrate 20 weeks in China. Soon, my trip will be halfway over.
Tonight, Toshiba and her friend Sky came over to cook dinner for Kellen and I. They made the usual Chinese dishes: scrambled eggs with tomatoes, eggplant in oil, and weird edible fungus soup. I know Chinese food has a pretty wide variety, but why do I end up eating variations of the same three dishes for every single meal?!
This past weekend, we went to Shanghai. Five Americans and three Germans went: Me, Kellen, George, Justin, Maia, Anne, Anna, and Elsa. We met Christoff, another German student from Nanjing, there. We had ourselves a great weekend!
Friday evening, we got on the slow train to Shanghai. It was a double-decker passenger train and we were on the top floor. The ride was about 4 hours because the train stopped at every town along the way. I don't know why, but I loved this train! It was old, slow, and awesome. There were too many people on the train, and there was no room for all of our stuff. I got a little drunk on the train drinking beer, and I just enjoyed riding the train immensely. I wish the U.S. had a better train system. When we arrived at Shanghai, we were tired and hungry, so we got some food and called it an early night.
Saturday morning, I got up pretty early and I took Maia down to Nanjing West Road. We walked down to People's Square, and on the way, this annoying shoe shining guy attacked me with his shoe gel. He sprayed it all over my shoes and then wanted me to pay him to clean it off. I got pretty mad, but my shoes were dirty anyway, so I gave him 2 yuan to shine my shoes... Maia and I thought it was hilarous at the time. Then we explored the park at People's Square, headed down Nanjing East Road, got to the Bund, turned South along the Huangpu River, took a ferry over to the Pudong area, then we found a little import store full of American food products. I felt more homesick than I have so far in China... almost physically ill! I'm going to go nuts when I get back to the U.S... I'll probably put on 10 pounds just from eating 6 meals a day. Saturday afternoon, we went to the Super Brand Mall for a Burger King lunch (mmm!). Then we went to the underground ripoff market and shopped for a few hours. I bought two Tommy Hilfiger sweaters for about $10 each. I have enough sweaters now, I think. I had fun bargaining - some of the other Americans said I was being mean to the shop owners, but I was just joking with them... and it worked! I got them down to their lowest prices.
Saturday evening, I took everyone out to the vegetarian restaurant on Nanjing East Road. Delicious! It wasn't as good this time around, though - I think I must be more accustomed to Chinese food now, so my taste is slowly refining. I definitely know a good quality meal when I eat one.
After dinner, Maia went back home to bed because she was tired. The rest of us went to I Love Shanghai, a cool little bar on the Bund. It was a 100 yuan "open bar" night, and we went a little nuts. We have great pictures from the night... here are a few. First, me and Elsa getting started:
Next, Anne and I being our normal goofy selves:
And finally, me acting cool after a few too many drinks. Notice the popped collar:
It was a fun night that ended with me throwing up out of the back window of a taxi careening around Shanghai. Talk about some life experience!
Sunday, we got up and went down to Papa John's for lunch. I got my fill of Western food and cheese for awhile. We did a little more shopping and I found a Chinese version of Monopoly at a street vendor. I'm excited to play with a few of my students soon! I think I'll teach Nancy how to play tomorrow evening. We finished lunch and then just sat around relaxing at a big intersection on Century Avenue in Pudong. Finally, we sauntered over to the train station and took the bullet train home (only 90 minutes instead of 240). I was exhausted, but I had a great weekend! My apartment didn't have water for over 24 hours. I'm not sure why - it looked like a water main broke near my building. It's not the first time this has happened - my water, my electricity, and my internet all seem to come and go as they please. (They're actually pretty reliable - 90% of the time, all three work without problems.)
Class is going well. I've heard indirectly from other teachers who have met my students that they love and adore me - great! I just happen to be a guy who appreciates being both loved and adored. My students are adorable! I have a hard time thinking of a better adjective, and that's a strange word to use given that half of them are older than me - but they're just adorable! The guys and the girls - all of them. I'm enjoying my teaching job. I've decided that I certainly don't want to be a career teacher for the rest of my life, but I'm really enjoying my time in China teaching.
Tomorrow is my weekly date with Nancy (lately, bi-weekly... we've been seeing a lot of each other). She's a doll! I didn't expect to meet a sarcastic, hilarious girl here. My wrong American stereotype was that Chinese girls were quiet, subservient, boring, and traditional. Nancy's definitely none of those things! (Except when I'm sick and she shows up to tend after me, which I secretly enjoy even though I insist that I can care for myself.)
The editor of the Jiangsu.net website wants me to write an article about my experience here in Zhenjiang. I have complete writer's block, but I definitely want to do it! I'll have to pick a few hours when I have nothing to do, have a glass of Chilean merlot (the best wine I've had in China so far!) and get to it.
It's such a strange feeling when I'm both homesick for things in the U.S. and fearing the homesickness for Chinese life I'll feel when I leave here ... on nights like tonight, I really appreciate the work I did and "guts" I mustered to move across the world. I miss some things, but holy cow, I'm an entirely new person. I finally understand what people mean when they say "I found myself." Turns out I was behind the sofa the whole time. (Haha how many lame jokes can I make?!) :)
One more picture... me getting tickled by Anne and Kellen! I'm so ticklish:
Another Halloween Party - Monday November 5, 2007
I invited my students (all 300 of them!) to a Halloween party here at my apartment building with the other foreign teachers. The rules were that first, they had to email me for an official invitation, and second, they had to wear a costume. This weeded out most of them (maybe 20 came?). The few who did want to come ended up wearing pretty pathetic costumes: a few masks, a few temporary tattoos, and maybe three or four really cool costumes showed up.
Imagine a room cram-packed with Chinese students standing awkwardly around, taking camera phone pictures of me in a toga... that pretty much sums up the party! Luckily, I was drinking and so I didn't mind too much. We made them bob for apples and they liked it. Then we had them play the "blindfolded who's standing in front of you" game - you get blindfolded, sit in a chair, and touch the person in front of you with wooden spoons until you can guess who it is. They really liked that one, especially when someone touched someone of the opposite sex with wooden spoons. Oh my, how I'm corrupting the youth of China!
All in all, Halloween in China was a big success.
Friday night, we went to a new bar in town called Wu Hao. I didn't want to drink really, so I just had a few beers. When I walked in, I noticed one really amazingly gorgeous girl in the bar. She looked like a young Lucy Liu. Halfway through the night, I was sitting at the bar and then she came up to me and started up a conversation. She was from Shanghai and she was just here visiting her grandparents. I danced with her and flirted with her for awhile, then I got her number and left. I was going to call her on Saturday to hang out again, but I stood her up because I spent the whole day with Nancy.
Nancy came knocking on my door at 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Since I was up until 3:00 a.m. the night before, she told me I looked like a panda. (Bags under my eyes perhaps?) I made her pancakes and eggs for breakfast, then we went and played basketball for a few hours. We came back to my apartment, got cleaned up, and then got lunch. We went shopping downtown for gloves (I found some nice faux-leather gloves) and had dumplings at my favorite restaurant for dinner. Then we went to a photo booth place and took "big head photos" together. They look great! We did a lot of really funny poses together. Finally, we ended up back at my place watching Men in Black and we talked for a few hours until I had to walk her home for her 11:00 p.m. curfew. 15 hours together in one day!
She kicked my ass at basketball if you were wondering. Here's a photo of our big head photo:
Sunday, I didn't do much. I slept in, I skyped people back home, I cleaned my whole apartment, I watched some South Park, worked on my lesson plans, and went out to dinner with Kellen, Justin, Liz, and Anne. We found the second, smaller Japanese restaurant in town. I really like that one - delicious!
I played Resident Evil 4 for too long and I fried my voltage transformer. That sucks. I can't finish the game now because I don't want to damage my Gamecube.
Tonight at 5:30 p.m., I'm going to dinner with Toshiba, one of my students. She asked me to edit some of her research group's Chemistry papers. I edited the articles, they got published in some journals, and tonight they're taking me to dinner at an American beef steak restaurant to thank me. I'm really hoping the beef is delicious! I haven't had a good steak since I landed.
And why not end with a photo of me in a toga with two Chinese male witches??
