So the entry you've all been waiting for is finally here! I'm going to try and capture what life here is like outside of school. To be honest I'm not really sure what I will talk about. So much that was crazy when I got here has kind of become normal. I'd appreciate any specific questions you have about anything such as: what's it like getting stared at? or Are the laws of physics really ignored in China?
Also, at the end of this entry I have a smaller bit about Christmas here. It will be a long entry. So buckle up!
Here goes:
Generally when walking out my door I experience something new. It's not always a big thing but Matt (has been here 4 yrs) still says he sees things that are new. What I mean is I'll be walking down the street and someone will come biking down the road with an IMPOSSIBLE amount of cargo on the back or someone will be scrubbing a random portion of pavement. Just walking here is an adventure full of new experiences.
While it does work sometimes it is also largely ignored such as in this picture. People park their bikes/cars across it or guy wires will cross over at head height. It makes for some funny pictures but just means no one could trust them and they're a bit annoying to walk on for everyone else. More funny pics are here and here.
When out for a walk you have to watch your feet if you don't want to step in something. This is, of course, true in most countries but more so in China. People spit most anywhere and kids walk around with ass-less pants so that they can crap/pee whenever they needed. I realize that this would paint a picture of very dirty roads. This largely isn't the case. While you do come across some grossness it is by no means the norm. It's just something to watch out for.
Going to a market or store is a tonne of fun. You can find just about anything at some stores and then only very specific things at others. What I mean is you can go to one store that has approximately one of everything in existence. Then you can go to another store/stand that sells pink and purple shoes and nothing else. You can also find a store that only sells hats which is weird because you never see a Chinese person wearing a hat.
People here don’t use hand gestures very often either. It can make it difficult when trying to communicate. They are pretty much the anti-Italians of the world. They won’t point or make gestures to show meaning. It just doesn’t occur to them to do. Part of it is also that it’s considered a little bit rude but not in any strong way.
Bus tickets can be bought 4 days in advance. If you’re lucky they will be for a specific bus/time. If you’re not lucky it will just be a generic ticket to your location. You wait in line and hope you can push your way onto the next bus. If you don’t get on you wait for the next one, whenever that may be.
The street food here is by far the best I’ve seen anywhere in the world. For a few kwai you can get a wide variety of highly tasty food. Today I went to a street booth that you just sit around a big tub of boiling water that is filled with various foods on sticks. You pick what you want and at the end you pay for how many sticks you have. (ed note: I was sick 2 days after doing this, not sure if it was related or not. However I have gone back and not gotten sick again.)
If it wasn’t for the evil red bean paste that ends up in so much food it would be even better! Often things look really good but turn out to be filled with red bean paste. It looks deceivingly like chocolate which is an absolutely horrible surprise.
Chinese people don’t really do sweet foods very well. That said, almost all of their bread is sweet. It’s very hard to find normal bread here. It makes no sense.
Stands at the side of the road will sell anything. Fruits/vegetables are the most common however you can frequently find caged chickens, various trinkets, even small rabbits or puppies. This is normal to everyone.
Logic does not need to factor into decisions. Someone will say that the window has to be open to get fresh air. It does not matter if there is construction going on outside the window causing a lot of dust. A friend of mine joined a gym for 3 months, a few weeks after joining she showed up and it was closed. Apparently they decided it is “too cold” to operate. Matt has told me he often has such meetings with people. A quote from him: “sometimes it’s not a language barrier. Sometimes it’s an idiot barrier.”
Entering stores in the Winter is temporarily very scary. Most large doorways have very heavy tarps/curtains over them. These are never see through and it’s a fairly common occurrence to get clobbered when trying to find the break in the curtain.
Right now the taxis, gas company, and government are having a minor scuffle. The government sets the price for natural gas which all the taxis use. Dongying is home to a major oilfield and natural gas is just a waste product in their minds so taxis are incredibly cheap. However the oil company says they’re not making any money on it since they can’t raise the price so they have seriously cut back the supply. Now you can barely find a taxi and when you do it always costs at least 10 to get anywhere instead of the normal 6. Everyone knows the prices will have to go up since 6 (about $1) is just way too low.
Speaking of taxis, taking one is regularly an adventure. I have never seen a stop sign in China. Drivers here seem to follow a "avoidance rule" meaning that they drive to avoid hitting anyone. They do NOT, however, drive not to be hit. So if you pull out in front of someone it's their job not to hit you. Leads to lots of harrowing experiences but you just trust you'll be safe and you enjoy the ride.
Speaking of taxis, taking one is regularly an adventure. I have never seen a stop sign in China. Drivers here seem to follow a "avoidance rule" meaning that they drive to avoid hitting anyone. They do NOT, however, drive not to be hit. So if you pull out in front of someone it's their job not to hit you. Leads to lots of harrowing experiences but you just trust you'll be safe and you enjoy the ride.
Because of this taxi issue I had another “interesting” experience last weekend. I was going to the college to meet some friends and I couldn’t get a taxi so I started walking but I wasn’t completely sure where to go so I kept trying to get one the whole way. Several illegal taxis stopped but they wanted 15 and I only wanted to give them 10. Finally when I knew I was fairly close one stopped and said 10 was enough so I got in. I told him the address in Chinese and I showed it to him on a piece of paper my friend has written out. He said he knew where it was. He drove about 200M and stopped and said this was it. We were at the West gate but I wanted the East gate. I told him so and he said that would cost 15. I told him I would only pay 10, he insisted 15 but started driving anyway so I called my friend who talked to him, she said he knew where he was going but I’d have to pay 15. The East gate is maybe a 5 min drive from the West. After 15 minutes I could tell he had no idea where he was going. He drove in circles a few times so finally, after stifling some laughter I told him where to go. So I walked really far and still had to pay 15 but it was yet another adventure in dealing with Chinese people. Sometimes it really is an idiot barrier.
Last weekend I was taken to a big Christmas show that the church put on. It was in a large banquet hall at a hotel with about 700 people. I, of course, had no idea what was going on but the food was very good. They sat me at the very head table, apparently because some of the people spoke English. Since it was such a big room they had lots of cameras to film the show and also pan the audience. I’m convinced the camera was on me for at least 25% of the evening. It’s a bit disconcerting trying to eat with a live video feed of it on a large screen.
At the show I talked briefly to a lady I was told was the first one to start a church in Donying 5 years ago. There are over 5,000 Christians there now according to some of the leaders. Talk about exponential growth.
I think I found someone to take/look after Balthier. The girl that I tutor wants him. I asked her mom (who teaches me Chinese) if she knew of anyone that would want him. She thought maybe her daughter would so she asked her later and she did the cute, slow nod that young kids do.
I found out this week that I have 6 weeks off for the break. I have to be back in DY on Feb 10th for start of classes on the 13th. I’m really looking forward to the break. Have some pretty cool destinations planned and it’ll be great to see Nathan.
About the 2nd or 3rd question that people ask you here is “how much do you make”? Generally I tell people 4K as it’s an ok salary but not amazing so they accept it and think it’s fair. Recently one of the Chinese teachers at the school asked me. How much we get paid. I had the sense that it wasn’t just a casual question. I knew we weren’t really supposed to discuss it but it seemed like there was a reason she was asking so I told her 4K. She said “oh, the school is telling us you make 10K.” At this point I was glad I had said something. So I told her that the school doesn’t pay us, they pay another company that pays us. This seemed to satisfy here. I asked her why the school told her this. Apparently other teachers had asked for a raise and the school said they have no money because they pay us so much. It puts us in an odd position. I’m hoping she tells people that we really don’t make that much but I’m not sure if she will.
Today I went into a shop that I have wanted to go in for a long time. It always appeared to be a police supply shop. Turns out that's exactly what it is. Flare fun? Exit signs? Pylons? Cop hats? Cop clothing? Tasers? They had it and for very reasonable prices as well. The lady inside loved us because we took funny pictures with various things we found. This is the difference of living in Dongying opposed to Shanghai. They just love us here and enjoy watching us.
I'll end this portion with a joke which only a few of you may find funny (I know, that's a great setup):
A Chinese man is walking across the road and gets hit by a car. A foreigner runs out to him and says "how are you?" The man responds "I'm fine thanks, how are you?"
I'll end this portion with a joke which only a few of you may find funny (I know, that's a great setup):
A Chinese man is walking across the road and gets hit by a car. A foreigner runs out to him and says "how are you?" The man responds "I'm fine thanks, how are you?"
CHRISTMAS!
Many people have asked me what Christmas is like here so I’ll tell you what my last few days have been like. China doesn’t celebrate Christmas but they know it exists. So you see some lights and trees decorated but everything was open today like it always is. If it was a Monday kids would have been in class too.
Friday the head people at the school took the foreign teachers out for a fancy buffet. It was very tasty food however they did the traditional Chinese drinking which works like this: you cannot drink when you’re thirsty. If you want to drink you must cheers everyone at the table. If you are cheersed you have to drink your whole glass. If you do not it is considered insulting to the cheerer. We wanted to eat the delicious food, not get filled on beer so 2 of us basically told them no, we were very full. The other two carried on for awhile but it’s really quite brutal. The girls, however, are not supposed to drink in public at all. They also don’t smoke in public.
Saturday was a pretty quiet day until the evening when I went out with the 2 couples for “hot pot”. It’s basically a fondue using boiling water with lots of spices. You go and get various meats and other foods then cook it in your own pot. It’s highly tasty and goes well with my family’s tradition of doing fondue on Christmas eve.
Sunday Kelly came to my place and we headed to get some food and take it to a wine bar near my place. There we met about 15 other foreigners for a pot luck dinner. It was by far the most foreigners Kelly had ever seen and she really seemed to have fun. We got to try lots of wine and cheese (both of which Kelly didn’t think were very good). It was a really fun time and lasted pretty much all day.
Well, that’s my update on life in China as well as what Christmas is like. I’ve added some more pics to the “Life in China” album on picasa. The link is at the right hand side of this blog. After my holiday I’ll create a new album.
As always I love emails and comments on this blog. Also, I’ll be traveling again so get signed up for that postcard list if you aren’t there yet!
Merry Christmas!
Wiseguy1
PS: The last picture that I uploaded desperately needs a caption. Post a comment on it there, in facebook, or use the "anonymous comment" feature on this blog entry (leave your name of course). If people participate I'll find something fun to mail to the winner.
I didnt know James Bond was a Led Zepplin fan!!!
ReplyDeleteHe isnt REALLY going to kill that man who is innocently filming is he?! *sad face*
~Hannah~