Adventures in Guangzhou!

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September 29, 2005

Foreign Experts

That's me!
It turns out that in order to get a residence permit here in China, a foreigner has to be classified as some type of foreign expert. After registering with the police upon arrival, HSFZ (our school) had to jump through a few more hoops just to get us the *application* for being a foreign expert. I was expecting a long comprehensive petition but it turns out the form was kind of a joke. The foreign affairs secretary of our school filled out the papers but had to ask us for all of the information. She wanted to know what my areas of expertise were so I said history and English. She responded with, "Is that all?" I got the feeling I needed to sound a bit more impressive so I added classical South Indian vocal music (a stretch), Georgian chant music (less of a stretch), track & field (not really a stretch at all), and political science (virtually a complete lie). She seemed pleased with these responses so I left it at that.

Lo and behold, after only three weeks of my application and passport being sent around the bowels of the Guangdong province, I got my foreign expert certification and residence permit! Sure my permit is only valid through May 15th and I'm on contract through the end of June, but I'll worry about that later (or should I say, the school will worry about it...). Anyway, one of the benefits of being a so-called foreign expert (and simply participating in PiA) is that we get invited to random formal banquets and celebrations. Tonight I had the honor of attending Banquet #3 to commemorate the 56th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. The Vice President (or whatever he's called) of the entire province was there along with a bunch of other bigwigs from the party. Once again I managed to avoid any long-winded speeches and get straight to the incredible food.

Before I get to the food though, I should mention that this was the first time that I felt like I was being fed communist propaganda. There was a nice thank-you to everyone for their contributions to the wealth and well-being of the city, but the keynote speaker spent all 5 minutes talking about how the party has been providing for all people since its inception. He described how for fifty six years now everyone from peasants to businessmen have benefited from their hard work. I think that may be a stretch. I still have a slightly bitter taste in my mouth from Faison's descriptions of the people in Tibet. What exactly has the party done for them, other than exile the dalai lama? I understand that this is the party line and that all officials are obligated to spread it, however, I'm curious if they actually believe it. Are their any government officials that truly are working to better the lives of all people or are they just in it for the power? Maybe the money? I hate to sound so cynical, but after everything I've read it's tough to have faith in such a controlling system. Then again, it's not very difficult to accuse the U.S. government of corruption and disservice either. Sad, but true.

These thoughts were fleeting, however, once I saw the buffet. What can I say? Sometimes I have a one track mind. We were at the Garden Hotel tonight, arguably the nicest hotel in the entire city, and the meal certainly reflected that. I didn't have anything too exotic, but the highlights included amazing sushi and sashimi, a great ginger pork, a veal w/ mushrooms concoction, some sort of meat dumpling, and the dessert. I don't generally have much of a sweet tooth but for whatever reason I went nuts tonight on the dessert table. It wouldn't turn the heads of any Italian chefs, but the green tea tiramisu was excellent. I also couldn't complain about the black forest cake. Mmmmmm. Those of you who know me well know that I take full advantage of free food, especially when it's tasty. Lets just say that as everyone else was done and they were beginning to take the food away, I was loading up my 4th plate.

I have one day of lessons before my first vacation and I am incredibly excited. While I may go delirious during the course of my 24 hour train ride up to Hangzhou, I know it will be worth it. I'm excited to see what is supposedly one of the most beautiful spots in China and I am equally excited to meet up with a whole crew of PiA-ers. Before my week of freedom, I had to come up with a new lesson for these last two days and I decided to do something fun, in the spirit of pre-holiday high school classes. After much deliberation I handed out a copy of the lyrics to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" with a dozen or so key words missing. The goal, after listening to the song, was to figure out what the words were. It was SO much fun. My kids egged me on to try the moonwalk and I obliged. I also laughed heartily as I tried to explain Vincent Price's pseudo-rap at the end. The funk of forty thousand years? Where did they come up with that??

This will probably be my last post for about a week since I'm leaving my computer behind on my travels. I can guarantee that I will have a plethora of stories to tell upon my return, assuming I survive the extended transit time. Special shout-out to my splendid sister Ilana-- Happy Birthday!! May your 27th year bring you joy, happiness, and a Yankees post-season berth. I pledge to consume at least one tsingtao in your honor tomorrow...

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September 27, 2005

South of the Clouds

I just finished reading "South of the Clouds" by Mr. Seth Faison, former Shanghai Bureau chief for the New York Times. This book interested me for several reasons. First off, Seth went to Wesleyan and it's no secret that I have a lot of Wesleyan pride. Second, the book is very well written (in my humble non-English major opinion) and has some really vivid description in it. Third, Seth was the keynote speaker at the final dinner of PiA orientation. Back in May we had a 5 day orientation down in Jersey to get to know each other and go over some basics such as safety, travel, culture, language, etc. On the final night we had a thoroughly preppy send-off in one of the nicest buildings on the Princeton campus, complete with a catered meal and open bar. But I digress.

I was excited to see that Mr. Faison represented Wesleyan well by showing up to the formal dinner wearing a suit jacket over a plain white t-shirt. Heh. He recounted his life story in brief and was a very captivating speaker. As a reporter in Beijing during Tiananmen in 1989, he saw one of the most incredible events of the last twenty years. Anyhow, his book goes into detail about his language training in Xian (the site of the terra cotta warriors), about his life as an itinerant journalist, and about his impressions of being a foreigner in China. Check it out if you're interested.

The book left me with two lasting thoughts:
1. Right now I certainly feel like an outsider due to the language barrier, however I don't feel that people are guarded around me or that they look down on me for being an American. Maybe I'm being naive here but so far people have (at least on the surface) been very friendly and outgoing. Faison talks about being shut out and looked down upon as inferior due to the color of his skin (not to mention the size of his nose). I'm wondering if I will feel the same way once I can converse better with my coworkers and random inhabitants of the city. I thought about it from an American perspective and unfortunately there is some level of the same judgement in the U.S. If someone is born abroad or is not a native speaker, there are a number of people who will judge them accordingly. According to Faison, Chinese people have a difficult time reconciling their culture's past with the events of the 19th and 20th centuries (not to mention little things like the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen). The result seems to be a national consciousness that is fiercely proud, yet also somewhat ashamed. Regardless, they are Chinese above all else.
2. I'm dying to go to Tibet. Faison's descriptions of Tibet are unbelievable and I think Tibet is now at the top of my list for travel destinations. It also breaks my heart to read about the treatment they get in the province from the government (and to some extent the Han Chinese, who think they are barbarians). It really is a travesty but it is unlikely that anything will change in the near future. The picture I have in my head of the Buddhist monasteries and the mountains are straight out of a movie--something that seems too beautiful to be real. The religion major in me is also completely intrigued by the Tibetan faith and practice. I would LOVE to spend an extended period of time in one of the temples there. Jan Willis would be so proud of me...

Besides the book, I also wanted to make a comment about inconsistencies in China. It seems that you simply cannot depend on things staying the same here, on any level. For example, today I went to use the sink in my bathroom and out of nowhere I had ridiculously high water pressure. It had been a solid trickle before this but now I'm getting blasted by the backsplash. What caused the change? I don't know. Speaking of water, it's always a crapshoot whether I'll have hot water in the shower. Sometimes it's scalding and other times frigid. I've actually come to enjoy the colder showers given how hot it is here and how I'm generally completely overheated from playing basketball or football. A few other examples: one of my students early on heard Steven and I say we really like jia zi (dumplings) and he decided to take us to his favorite spot. In true China fashion, it was gone--replaced by a cheesy looking clothing store. One of the take-out spots I frequent is also hugely inconsistent. Not only does the quality of the food fluctuate, but so does the price! While the sign says 5 yuan, sometimes I pay 6; other times 4. Why is this? Got me. At least my basketball game has been pretty consistent lately.

Steven and I ventured out to the Grandview Mall this past weekend (the largest mall in Asia--it's *enormous*) and Steven bought a digital camera. Despite three years of mandarin study, UNC did not prepare my roomate with essential vocabulary he needed such as "memory card," "rechargeable batteries," "megapixel," or "zoom," so it was quite an adventure. He was successful though and has used the camera several times in the past few days. If you're interested in pics of our apartment, in our adventures making jia zi with the Yalies, or in random city shots, check out the following link:
http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=284251127642071670/l=61187536/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB Enjoy!

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September 26, 2005

I Shook Up The World!

Today I decided to wear my glasses instead of my contacts and I got some interesting comments. Most of the girls who spoke up seemed pleased and decided that I looked much more like a proper teacher. On the other end, all of the boys seemed disappointed. One even told me that he didn't think I should ever wear my glasses because I no longer looked like a "footballer." I had to smirk when I realized that I'm thought of as a "baller" here, to use the colloquial nomenclature. Ha!

It comes as no suprise to me, but I have decided that I am a much better history teacher than I am an English teacher. Not that my English classes are going bad by any means, but I feel so much more at home teaching history. We're on to World War I which I really do enjoy, especially in how it relates to WWII (Versailles as the thirty year truce--brilliant). This course I am designing has even given me the opportunity to explore some new aspects of media and American culture that I didn't know much about beforehand. The music from the teens is a riot and it's very cool to see aspects of jazz, brass band, and country in the pop tunes. I'm really excited to show them the transition to Big Band and vocal jazz in the next couple of weeks. If I'm feeling really daring, maybe I'll even teach them how to dance the Charleston...

I met with tutor #2 yesterday and decided that I'd take her on. "Cherry" is a graduate student in English at South China Normal University and is very sweet. She speaks really well and seems genuinely interested in tutoring me, though she is a bit shy and sheltered. She did her undergrad at Central China Normal U. in Wuhan and seems thoroughly intimidated by Guangzhou. I don't know where she gets her fears, but she has already told me that it's unsafe for women to walk around alone in Guangzhou. Ever. Under any circumstances. Now I don't doubt that you need to be careful in a big city like GZ, especially if you're a woman by yourself, but I think she's taking this a little far. She won't walk outside the gates of the University herself, event to head across the street to the convenience store. As far as Steven and I can tell (she's working with him as well), the first time she left the confines of the University was to come see our place at HSFZ last week. This big adventure was a trek taking all of three or four minutes, walking down the sidewalk. Steven even had to walk her back and it was during the day! I can't tell if this is indicative of Chinese women at all or whether she's just particularly scared. I'm trying to remind myself that there are inherent gender differences that I will never experience or even relate to, but I think she needs to explore more of what the city has to offer.

Regardless, she has much more of a structured plan for teaching me which I like. I think I may ditch my other tutor depending on how our first few lessons go. The downside is that she's so busy that she can only see me once a week. She told me not to worry though, that she would get me books and assign me daily homework. This I can deal with. I think I will be taking a page out of the Aaron Schwirian training manual and teach myself for the most part. I have been frustrated enough by my inability to communicate that I think I will be disciplined enough to get going on a more serious level. Sidenote- on my way to pick up the textbooks from Cherry this morning I saw another throng of students in military dress doing drills. I asked her about it and she said that all freshmen have to go through about 20-25 days of required military training at the beginning of college. Wow. I'm trying to imagine orientation at Wesleyan involving marching drills and M-16 training. Not surprisingly, I can't picture it. China isn't at the level of Israel with required military service, but it's definitely a lot more than the U.S. I'm wondering how the students feel about it...

Not that I needed much convincing, but my PiA mentor (and eminent China scholar) Professor Lynn White convinced me to head up to Hangzhou and Shanghai for the Chinese National Day Holiday next week. His descriptions and suggestions on what I could do in Eastern China are too enticing to ignore so I will be off on a 23 hour train ride to explore. Thanks, Prof. White! I'm hoping to rendezvous with a few other PiA kids along the way as well. Who's with me?? Lets go swimming in the West Lake! I'm not sure that's even legal but I'll figure it out. Sidenote- why is it called the National DAY Holiday when it's a week long? Got me.

Since I am starting to participate in rudimentary conversations with my coworkers here, they have decided that I need a Chinese name. Sure, I'll go along. Having no idea what to use, I asked for some assistance. The majority decided that I should be called "Yali," which means pressure, but that they shorten to "Ali" to sound like my English name. I like the idea of learning how to say "I shook up the world!" in Chinese and repeating it everytime I say something correctly. Way to represent the U.S., huh?

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September 24, 2005

Fall?

Yesterday in Guangzhou was the first day that could remotely be considered autumn here and I loved it. I guess mother nature took note of the autumnal equinox and responded accordingly because it was in the low 80's and there was a nice breeze. It was the first day that I did not sweat through multiple shirts during the course of the day (too much information? you be the judge). I was amused to see that a good chunk of my students were wearing their jackets during class. Jackets! It was definitely cooler than it has been, but it was by no means cold. I'm not breaking out the jacket until it's at least in the sixties. Naturally after yesterday's respite from the heat and humidity it has gone back to approaching unbearable today. Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Last week was the first time I assigned any homework for my regular English conversation classes and so far I have been extremely disappointed with the results. In the first class I went around to collect their papers (they had to translate three chinese riddles into English) and only about four out of the thirty kids had done the work. For the first time in my teaching career I "blew a gasket" (as Rabbi Chatinover used to say) and gave a very angry lecture to my students. Given my usually convivial mood, the kids were shocked. I ended the warning by telling them that they shouldn't bother coming to class next week if they don't do the homework reading. I think I got my point across.

I felt a little bad about it after the fact when we were discussing their "bellringer" writing assignment. I am in the middle of doing a lesson about descriptive adjectives and asked the students to write a couple sentences about how they were feeling. After my lecture, every single student responded that they were either "sad," (for not doing the homework) "scared," (because I yelled at them) or "ashamed" (that they had let me down). Geez. Maybe Chinese teachers don't yell at their students. Or maybe their other foreigner teachers let them get away with more in the past. Either way, I felt a little bad about it, but I don't take crap from my students so be it.

On a more uplifting note, I gave my students a couple of weeks to pick English names if they didn't have one already. I was prepared for ridiculous names and so far I have not been disappointed. At this point some of my favorites include "Whisper," "Echo," "Air," Silence," "Shadow," "Small," "Gunther," and "Raindrop." However, I have had much more fun giving names. Several students have not been able to decide between different options and have asked me to give them a new name. This has given me the ability to bring my friends to China! I now have all of 44 Home (my old house from Wesleyan) represented here with a Biggie, Steve, A.C., and Deefs. It makes me chuckle everytime I get to call on one of them. I also have a Kate, a couple Laurens, a Drew, a Mos, a Deacon, and an Evan. And for one of the kids who never pays attention (and thus annoys me a bit), I dubbed him "Keith," after a kid that I never liked in high school. Ha!

Apartment 205 of Building 1 here at HSFZ officially has a new couch. I am absolutely amazed that we managed to communicate well enough to give them the right address for delivery and that they got it here without a hitch. It's lime green, straight out of a 1970's lounge, folds down to a bed, and I love it. It looks a bit out of place with the rest of the decor in the place, but I'm not sure furniture this color could look appropriate anywhere in this decade. I guess you get what you pay for. Regardless, it has provided me with a very comfy seat for the excessive number of "24" episodes I've watched recently.

I am off to eat some homemade dumplings and I am extremely excited. Before I do though, I want to comment on the fact that the hit counter on my blog has gone over 1000. Now unless my parents are both checking the site approximately 50 times a day (hi mom! hi dad!), it means there are a bunch of people reading this out there and I am humbled. It means a lot to me that people are interested enough to check in on my adventures. So thanks for reading, and I hope to keep your attention for at least a little while longer...

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September 22, 2005

We Have a Winner!

The international competition of who-can-send-Ari-snail-mail-first is officially over and we have a tie! The illustrious Ilana Wolfe, my older sister, came in at the same time as China-veteran and Wes-track alum Morgan Philbin. A close second (by around 12 hours) was the new university-administrator and Beantown resident Lauren Budd. Come visit and I'll treat you all to the finest meal 5 yuan can buy :) I actually had my doubts as to whether I'd ever receive any real mail given my lack of a true mailing address, but lo and behold it worked! I suppose three weeks isn't too bad given that it is traveling across the globe. My compliments to the postal system on both ends. Thanks to all who participated though. I suppose I can now open up the international competition of who-can-send-Ari-baseball-highlights-on-DVD-first competition...

I had my second language lesson today and boy was it a workout. My tutor really pushed me and I appreciated it. I can now successfully say numbers, times of day, days of the week, and a couple of other random things. As it turns out, my tones have been okay so far, but my pronunciation skills have been lacking. I don't know what it's called, but the u with the diacritic mark over it (the umlaut) is killing me. My mouth simply does not want to make that sound, but I'm working on it. In concurrence with the old adage that when it rains it pours, I now have contact info for a couple of other tutors, after I struggled forever to find one. Apparently it is the expat way to try out a few until you find one you really like, so this weekend I will be meeting up with #2, a grad student at the university next door. Her name is Cherry and she has entertainingly awkward English. Sounds promising...

One of my friends and co-workers has been after to me to play tennis with him for the past few weeks so I finally obliged today. I think I was asking for it when I told him at the outset that I really enjoy tennis (true) and that I play (barely true). So for the first time since gym class with Coach Coursey back in senior year of high school, I picked up a tennis racquet. I wish I could say that I staged a major Andre Agassi-like comeback, but that would be a lie. We ended up playing doubles with two other teachers and while I wasn't embarassed, I definitely got worked around the court quite a bit. I hit a number of forehand winners which was satisfying. Unfortunately I also hit an almost equal number of backhand shots that went straight up or behind me. Oh well. It was actually really fun though--I think I'll play again soon. The only annoying thing is that the court is right out in the open by the student dorms and I unwittingly drew a serious crowd just by playing. Not much I can do about that one though.

On a more serious note, Steven and I held our "English Corner" free-form conversation session today in which any student could show up and chat with us. As per the precedent apparently set by Melissa and Sonja, the two PiA-ers here last year, we had it out in the courtyard of the academic buildings on a very pretty little bridge. My side of the conversation was pretty tame as several students asked me about applying to American colleges, but Steven had a slightly more interesting conversation. One of his students asked him if he had any black friends and he responded with a yes. The students on his side were somewhat surprised and told him that they are all scared of black people. This is the first time I've heard it in such a direct way, but sadly, it is not the first time I've gotten that impression from the Chinese.

What I don't know is the true source of the fear. I'm guessing that some amount of American media infiltration is responsible, but it has to be more than that. Did an African or African-American commit some type of heinous crime here? I tend to doubt it, at least nothing that a Chinese had not done already. So what is it? This is an issue that I would like to explore further because I think it's indicative of an overall racial tension in the country. While the government would like people to think that everyone is treated equally and that no one is discriminated against, that's just blatantly untrue. At this point we are well aware of the various minority groups around the country that do not get the same opportunities in school, occupations, or religion. I get the feeling that anyone who is not Han-Chinese is generally starting out with a couple strikes against them before that at-bat even starts. Whatever it is, I am very curious and would like to find out more.

On a less serious note, Steven and I made a major purchase yesterday and coughed up the dough for a couch. It's not exactly a luxurious Italian leather foldout, but it should do the trick for anyone who wants to crash with us (not to mention making movie-watching more pleasant). We have a nice sized "sofa" here already, but it happens to be of the traditional-Chinese variety meaning it's all wood. I think our gluteus muscles will thank us for this one. The process of buying the thing was pretty painless, but figuring out how and when they would deliver it was more of a challenge. Or perhaps I should say IS more of a challenge since we don't actually have it yet. It was supposed to be here this afternoon but I got a call on my cell from someone speaking top-speed mandarin that apparently said it could not be done (or so Steven translated). Check with me at 7:30pm tomorrow night and I'll let you know if we need to go crack some skulls over at the Park & Shop.

As if I needed more to do, I managed to locate all four seasons of 24 on DVD and now I'm screwed. Those of you who watch the show know what I'm talking about. Those of you who don't, I highly recommend you check out season one. Just don't do it when you have anything to do for about four or five days in a row because I promise you will be unable to turn it off. A.C.-sorry buddy. Looks like I'm going to have to do seasons three and four in your absence, unless you want to take off a week of work and head over here. Let me know--I'll wait for that.

Otherwise, I'm trying to figure out what to do for my week off at the beginning of October. Anybody want to rally for a party in Hangzhou? Yangshuo? Let me know.

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September 20, 2005

And He's Off...

After much trial and tribulation, I finally located a language tutor (thanks, Meggie)! She's a tiny bit more expensive than I'd like, but at this point I was dying to start so it's a beginning if nothing else. "Maria" showed up this morning and went to work immediately. Even as we walked from the front gate back to my apartment, she was explaining the proper greeting in China (ni hao, obviously). We sat down at the dining room table (a.k.a. chess table) and she started writing furiously on notecards, all while lecturing me on the Mandarin language. Despite my knowing a handful of phrases and grammatical rules, I instructed her to begin at the beginning and she willingly obliged. What this meant was virtually an hour of me reciting the four basic tones of "putunghua" over and over again.

Ma, ma, ma, ma.
Ba, ba, ba, ba.
Ta, ta, ta, ta.
Na, na, na, na.
You get the idea. It was nice to finally start official instruction and I am definitely looking forward to studying. I think I'm starting just in time to circumvent any boredom and feed my brain at the same time. It's perfect! On the flipside, it's also incredibly intimidating to start a new language that is so foreign to English. I'm trying to convince my psyche that having studied a non-romance language such as Hebrew will help. Plus I do have a relatively decent ear to hear the differences in tones so that's a plus. At least I hope I do. I'm marking the day on my calendar: September 20th. I'm wondering how long it will be before I can actually participate in conversation at the faculty lunch tables. I'm shooting for October 20th to at least be able to explain to them that I'm making progress. Wish me luck.

On the teaching front, I finally started my history class which I am very excited about. I mentioned before that they gave me complete freedom to design a course so I'm teaching 20th c. American history through music. What a treat! They asked me how many students I wanted in the class and I told them that ideally it should be capped at 20. The head of the department sort of scoffed at that figure so I upped it to 30. He asked me if 40 was okay and of course I agreed. I guess I forgot that there are almost 700 kids in the Senior 2 class and that I'm here to spend as much time as possible with them. So apparently each individual section was allowed 4 students and competition was hot for each slot. I'd like to think that everyone was so interested in the topic and dying to learn U.S. history but in reality I think the novelty of the foreign teacher hasn't worn off yet. I'm not THAT naive. Either way, I was expecting at least a somewhat eager crowd.

As it happens, today was the big schoolwide jump-roping contest that coincided with my class, so half of them were absent. Great. I thought it was a bit funny to see high school boys practicing jump rope over the past few weeks but apparently they were in training. Interesting. The ones who did make it to class were definitely interested so I was excited about that. After I went over the syllabus, I lectured briefly about America at the turn of the century and then went right into the advent of jazz, as taught through a few recordings I have of Jelly Roll Morton. I had them compare the recordings to some Bach I played and they came up with some good observations. It was an encouraging beginning and while the course will be a lot of work for me, I'm totally psyched about it.

After class I had an interesting interaction with one of the students. One of the girls in the back came up to me and asked if we could avoid studying any additional jazz (this, after I assigned a homework reading about the proliferation of jazz in New Orleans). I was caught a bit off guard and asked her to clarify the question. She was a bit shy, but she managed to explain that she didn't understand jazz and that it made her feel uncomfortable. When I asked her why, she responded that she didn't like the lack of structure. Wow. I could be reading into that too much but it seems like a reflection of traditional Chinese society and the communist way. Regardless, I explained that I was of the opinion that understanding jazz was crucial to understanding America in the first half of the century and that we would be doing another two weeks on various forms of jazz. I hope I was not too rash in disregarding her complaint, but I think she needs to adapt. I guess one of the luxuries of being a teacher is that I have the final say.

On a completely different note, I had a really strange experience walking to the gym today after classes. After I finish teaching I generally head back to my apartment, drop off my stuff, change, and go right to the basketball court or football field. As I was walking over today (a 45 second walk) my ears perked up to the PA system. Let me explain- the school has a very loud public address system that they use for the bells signifying the start/end of class (think of the bells from the movie "Grease"). They also use it for announcements and to play music at the end of the midday break in order to give students time to wake up from naps and get back to the classroom buildings. Sidenote- whether intentional or not, this music is generally a very somber tune and suggests a mood of stop-having-fun-and-start-learning-immediately. There have been other seemingly random times when they play various other songs through the system but it's always in Chinese and I subconsciously tune it out. Today, however, was different. I heard the beginning of a song that sounded familiar. I started humming along with the intro to the song but couldn't place it. Finally the verse kicked in- "My Father's Eyes" by Eric Clapton. How random!?

On the sports front, I found out that I am now officially #18 on the football (a.k.a. soccer) team. The new uniforms are pretty snazzy and I feel proud to represent the school. Apparently we're sponsored by Umbro, or rather a reasonable facsimile thereof. I think we have our next game Wednesday but who knows. I think I'll just keep the uni with me at all times in case. Other than that, nothing else to report beyond missing baseball...

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September 17, 2005

Mid-Autumn Festival

This weekend is the Mid-Autumn Festival in China. While it took me a little while to get over the fact that it's still in the mid 90's and that we haven't had the autumnal equinox yet, everyone is definitely in a festive mood which is great. Someone tried to explain the root of the holiday to me and I caught part of the myth, but most of it went over my head. If I understand correctly, some angel was poisoned and went to live the rest of eternity up in the moon. The biggest part of this festival is that everyone eats a tasty Chinese desert called mooncakes, obviously related to the story. There are many different kinds of mooncakes out there and I have done my best to sample all I can. So far as I can tell, most are made of either red azuki beans or from lotus seeds, and are then flavored with any number of different fillings from cinnamon to egg. My favorite is by far the coconut variety. Mmmmmm. Sidenote- if I've already had 3 or 4 mooncakes, I wonder how many the country will consume this weekend as a whole. A billion? Two? It's a lot, that's for sure.

Last night the school held a Mid-Autumn festival party which Steven and I were both invited to. We didn't quite know what to expect, but we figured it would be a good time to bond with some of the other teachers and at least put in some solid face time. One of the younger English teachers gave us directions to where the party would be and we set off last night in search of fun. First off, I should explain that the party was held on campus. How convenient! It seemed a bit odd to me to have a party in the main office building, but what do I know? So we took the elevator up to the 5th floor, hung a right, and were met by quite a sight. The "room" for the party was a full-on social hall, complete with two disco lights, enormous loud-speakers, a large bar in the corner, a big dance floor, a stage, a projection screen hooked up for karaoke (obviously), and dozens of tables and chairs with food and drinks set out. Wow! I'm just trying to imagine my old high school having a secret party room where the teachers would go to drink and sing karaoke. I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist.

They told us 8:30pm for the start of the party so we figured 8:45pm would be a good time to show up. As it turns out we were fashionably early. Oh well. Regardless, they were very excited that we came, judging by their immediate efforts to give us drinks, fruit, and mooncakes. Sure, why not? I was pleasantly surprised to see most of my new football teammates there as well. They managed to inform me that I have a new uniform waiting for me on Monday when I play, which I'm very excited about. At first I thought they were mad that I hadn't washed the one I borrowed yet, but no--apparently since I am on the school team, the school bought me a jersey of my own. Excellent! Anyway, as the party got under way, they started to pressure us to sing karaoke. Steven wasn't that excited about the idea but I was happy to oblige. I mean I don't love karaoke, but when in Rome, right? We perused the list of possibilities and it turns out they had a small number of English standards. Steven and I settled on "Let It Be" and got up to do our best fab four impression. The crowd definitely loved us, simply for the novelty value. I even sang "Yesterday" as an encore.

The next guy that got up to sing started belting out a very somber ballad, featuring disturbing images of World War II on the screen. I asked one of the teachers if it was a famous song and she said yes. After a pause, she went on to explain that this year's Mid Autumn Festival was especially important because they were commemorating the the anniversary of when Japan invaded China in 1937 (or after the Mukden incident of 1931, depending on who you ask). I asked if there was still a bad feeling between the two countries and she responded that many Chinese were still very upset about the actions of Japan during the war. I knew this full well but I wanted to hear it directly. I have a bad feeling that things are going to come to a head again between China and Japan sometime in the not-so-distant future too.

Back to the party, we moved on to a few party games after the first round of karaoke. Steven was bold enough to volunteer to participate in the first contest, which involved trying to cut up the outer skin of some type of citrus fruit as quickly as possible into 5 sections. He put in a valiant effort, but sadly finished last. Have no fear--he has vowed to practice daily in order to represent the USA better next time. After this game there was another round of karaoke, after which one of the older teachers got up and gave a long-winded speech about the history of the school and how teachers are so important to China. I'm sure it was very beautiful but I'd never know because I only understood about six or seven words from his mouth, including "now," "tea," "four," and "a little bit." So basically Steven and I (after he gave up listening) began to make smart-aleck comments to each other about what he could be talking about. What can I say? Sometimes I amuse even myself.

I got the call to participate in the next game which was decidedly easier. This game involved two teams each running over to a bowl on the ground filled with water and ping pong balls. The object is to use chopsticks to pick up a ball and carry it back to your team's plate, relay-style. They were all immensely impressed that I could use chop sticks, and wouldn't ya know it? My team won! It's still a bit funny to me that our ability to use chopsticks is heralded by everyone we encounter. Is it really that big of a deal? Maybe I should put it on my c.v.... Steven and I got to play the last game together which was more or less team charades. One person sat in a chair with the mic (me) and attempted to guess what the other person was acting out (Steven). We made for a very good team, and he impressed them all with his ability to read the cue cards of chinese characters. After a little bit more cheesy techno music, the night came to an end. I think my first Mid-Autumn Festival is off to a great start...

Posted by awolfe at 12:14 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 16, 2005

Riddles, Haircuts, and Spoons

The lesson I've been doing this week with my kids has involved teaching them the right phrases to request clarification, e.g. "I'm sorry you lost me, can you repeat that?" etc. In order for them to practice, I put two students together and give one an English riddle to read out loud to the other. The listener then has to ask for clarification until they understand it. When they get the right answer, they switch with another set. I compiled about 16 riddles to give out, thinking that it would be waaaaaay more than enough. Silly me. My kids are wicked smart! They have been tearing through these riddles faster than I did the first time around!

For instance, most got the following riddles in less than a minute:
-Where can you find a road without cars, a forest without trees, and a city without people?
-What demands an answer but does not ask a question?
-Mountains will crumble and temples will fall with it, and no man can survive its endless call. What is it?
I have actually had some extra time at the end of class where I have had to request they write their own riddles because they solved all sixteen. Needless to say, I have been quite impressed. If anyone has any good riddles out there that aren't ridiculously hard, feel free to email me (ari.wolfe@gmail.com) and I will use them for my remaining lessons.

On an additional teaching note, I got a belated "Happy Teacher's Day" poster/card from Class #9 that has since gone up on the fridge. It was really sweet of the kids and it definitely made me smile, for what will soon become obvious. The following are some of the comments I got on the card, all anonymous:
"Your attractive smile, energetic words, and body language have deeply impressed us. Yeah!"
"I just want to say one thing- 'whatever happen, I will always back you up.'"
"I'm waiting for playing sports with you Ari"
"Fancy meeting you in our class!"
"It's always cheerful to know that foreign friends share such a crush in domestic culture. We like American culture as much as you guys enjoy Chinese one. It seems we are meant to be friends. Hope you guys have fun and achieved what you wanna persued here in China!"
And last but not least, "I don't know whether America has a teacher's Day such as ours. Anyway, Happy Teacher's Day! I hope we can be good friends!! I'm a girl!"

On a non-teaching note, I got my first haircut yesterday since coming here. I generally do not stress about haircuts at all but I found myself getting a bit nervous as I walked over, knowing I would not be able to communicate with the barber at all. I had visions of walking out with a mohawk. Or maybe a mullet. Or maybe a combination of both? Anyway, one of the teachers gave us a tip that South China Normal U., located right next to the school, has a cheap barbershop so that was the destination. When he said cheap I figured I'd pay a couple of dollars for a haircut. That would be a good deal, right? Well, it turns out I paid all of about 60 cents. But I digress.

I walked into the place and before I could even mime "I'd like a haircut," some guy beckoned me over to his chair. He sat me down, put the cape on, and there was no looking back! Steven had given me the word for "short" so I said it to the man with as much confidence as I could muster. He grinned even more and went to work. And, well, I've definitely had worse! The guy worked quickly and efficiently, taking care not to cut my ears off so that was a plus. I could tell that the other barbers in the place were definitely giving him a hard time too because they kept looking over and laughing after someone gestured in our direction. I'm guessing it was something along the lines of either "Hey don't screw up the foreigner's hair," or "My god, have you ever seen a Jewish afro like that?" Regardless, it was painless and I will definitely be heading back there for the rest of the year. It was funny that, similar to American barbershops, there seemed to be a whole bunch of people hanging out in the place that were neither giving nor receiving haircuts. I guess it's a fun place to hang out...

On a completely separate subject, Steven and I finally acquired a couple of spoons yesterday. Why is this significant, you ask? Well it turns out that in the school "canteen" where we eat lunch every day, no one uses chopsticks. I venture to say that we have even looked foolish eating with chopsticks everyday until now because literally everyone else had a spoon. We looked in our kitchen but there was not a spoon to be had. I finally cracked under the pressure and bought a pair so we could fit in a little better. It's only been three weeks without western silverware, but I have to admit, it felt both strange and as if I were cheating today when I was able to shovel my food down with a spoon. It just seems odd that everywhere else I have been so far has used chopsticks exclusively. Is the teacher's lunchroom some strange vortex within the Guangdong Province? Only time will tell.

Posted by awolfe at 1:19 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

September 14, 2005

Game On

I am on a comfortable routine now of playing football Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, along with a solid regimen of basketball on Tuesday and Thursday. As I've said before, it's a great way to keep in shape as well as meet people. I now have a solid crew of guys that I know and have basic conversations with which is encouraging. One of the reasons that I enjoy playing sports with them everyday is that they play hard--they play to win. Despite the sign on the gym wall that says, "Friendship First, Competition Second," things can get intense. Don't get me wrong, we laugh and joke around quite a bit. However, when it really gets down to it, no one wants to lose. For those of you who know me well, you know that I absolutely hate losing (have I ever mentioned that?) and that I am very competitive in most sports. So basically I fit right in!

The downside of this is that we can get pretty physical and I have a steadily increasing number of minor nagging injuries: a bruise on the elbow, a jammed thumb, a cut on the shin, etc. It's far too early for me to be thinking, "I'm too old for this," yet I find myself thinking that I'm not as young as I used to be. It's fine when I play with the teachers, but there are a couple of guys on the school basketball team that can leave me in the dust when driving to the basket. And I hate it. I guess that's what I get for playing pick-up games with guys who play several hours a day and do suicides (wind-sprints) at the end of every session.

This being a football day, I headed out to the stadium field at the regular time and got ready to lace up my cleats once again. The first thing I noticed as I walked out was that there were lines on the field today. "How nice," I thought, "now we'll know when the ball is out of bounds." The next thing I noticed was that the bigger goals were out, as opposed to the smaller goals we had been using the other day. A welcome change, I thought--bigger is better, right? I get closer and see a couple guys who look like referees chatting. A bit odd, but whatever. I turn my head to the side and notice three people with video cameras. Huh. Next thing I see is all the guys sitting down putting cleats on... all wearing a similar looking uniform top. Interesting. I get over to them and one of the guys throws me a jersey. As I catch the shirt, I notice a different team warming up on the field. Unbeknownst to me I was the newest member of the faculty/staff soccer team and we had a game!

It turns out we were playing a match against one of the local corporations in Guangzhou who fielded a very good team. I sat out most of the first half as a sub but came in towards the end of the half and played out the game in my old position of left back. They had one guy striking that we westerners would call a "ringer" and I had the privilege of marking him. I am always up for a challenge so I went right to work. This guy wasn't very big but boy was he fast! Wesleyan guys, think of the two guys from Typhoon that used to zip around the field. Needless to say, I got a good workout. I am proud to say that he only got one shot on the goal and it went way far right.

Anyhow, we were down 1-0 at the half but scored early on in the second to tie it up. The rest of the game went back and forth and I played decently well but not great. I did manage to slide tackle on one ball and received a nice grass burn for my efforts. The game was eventually called on account of darkness again (a recurring theme) and it was a tie. I hate that. I would almost rather lose because at least then I would know that the other team was better. A tie is just...nothing! It was a ton of fun though. Sidenote- in the middle of the first half, the ref blew his whistle for no apparent reason. Everyone stopped where they were and faced the direction of the gymnasium without saying a word. I had no idea what was going on until I realized everyone was at attention for the lowering of the national flag. Apparently this happens everyday! Along somewhat similar lines, I was walking around the South China Normal University campus earlier today trying to find a language tutor and came across an ENORMOUS military exercise. I'm talking hundreds and hundreds of people in uniform all doing drills and shouting at the top of their lungs. It was a bit of a reality check for me, i.e. oh right--I'm in China, a communist country. Gotta love it.

Posted by awolfe at 10:57 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

September 13, 2005

The International Language

Nope, not music. Not math either. In fact, I'm not even talking about love. I have discovered that the international language is actually sports! I mentioned in an earlier post that I went out to play football (a.k.a. soccer) with a bunch of the teachers but couldn't find them so settled on basketball. Well at the banquet the other night I was cornered by another group of guys who came up to me and said, "You must play football with us. We will play Monday." With an invitation like that, who could refuse? So I went out to the stadium field once again, and this time located the crew. Luckily I found room in my luggage when packing for my cleats so I could at least look the part. I sat down to lace 'em up and one of the guys came over exclaiming, "So professional!" Meanwhile, this guy had on a jersey, shin guards, cleats, and sweat bands. I was a bit concerned that I was going to have my keister handed to me playing with these guys, but I was pleasantly surprised. Apparently I really did learn something in my "Soccer Skills" course from 2nd semester senior year at Wesleyan! The rust wore off enough for me to score 2 goals which was one more than I scored in four years of intramurals at Wes. Fatal Attraction, eat your heart out! I was wasting away at fullback all those years! Yeah, right.

Anyway, just as in basketball, I found myself shouting English phrases out to my teamates that was most likely gibberish to them. Regardless, instinct dictated that I yell, "switch fields," "man on," and "settle," etc. throughout the game. A couple of the guys were interested in what I was saying and vice versa so I have started to learn chinese sports terminology and teach the English equivelants. I must say, it comes in even handier than phrases like "I would like to drink some tea." I wasn't quite sure what we were playing to but eventually I started to tire as the sun went down. At one point one of the guys came over to me and said "golden goal," signifying that next goal wins. Not a moment too soon, either, as I was starting to hurt. Both teams had a few solid opportunities, but eventually we had to call the game on account of darkness. I literally could not see the ball anymore unless I was dribbling!

I was getting all ready to head home when one of the guys came up to me and asked if I like to drink beer. Is the Guangzhou air polluted? Of course! Apparently one of the older fellows who showed up mid-game was the old executive principal of the school and he invited everyone out. So without even changing out of our cleats, we all headed out, the guys picking up their wives/girlfriends on the way. We rolled up to a relatively nice restaurant, all disgusting from two hours of football, but they didn't seem to care. We sat down at the table, and luckily one of the girlfriends spoke English well enough to do a little translating. The first question they asked me was, "Can you drink 3 bottles of beer?" Again, they underestimate me. I said sure. They asked if I could drink 6 and I said I didn't know but that I would drink as much as they would. So it began! We started the obligatory toasting and the older fellow treating us emptied his glass faster than I could say, "gam bei." At some point along the way he ordered food and suddenly we were immersed in an all-out feast! No complaints from me, either. The food was quite tasty and was northern chinese cuisine which I had not had very much of yet. It actually resembled American-style Chinese food which was cool. Though I gotta say, the food here puts that stuff to shame.

Anyway, we continued to toast and drain glasses throughout the meal, and once again I am proud to say that I was one of the last men left standing, so to speak. A few guys got good and drunk pretty quickly, but I was eating enough to soak up any amount of alcohol and thus continued to toast our host. Finally he cut us off and we headed out. I can't tell if I'm getting in really good shape from playing basketball and football everyday, or if I'm ruining myself by playing along with these drinkfest banquets. Either way, I'm having a great time! Though the language barrier was once again ever present, I managed to use my 5 phrases of mandarin and they struggled through a little English. We settled on the fact that I should play football with them much more and that a few of us would hang out and play PS-2. I didn't want to tell them that I'm not a big fan of video games so I agreed. It's nice to make a few friends among the faculty. They are great guys and I would never have gotten to know them without sports. And here you all laughed at me when I signed up for soccer skills back in '03...

I've been trying to figure out how to post some pictures and I think I may have figured it out. Try the following link:
http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=902121126576921071/l=59888435/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
Again, my html skills are lacking so you have to copy and paste it (Steve, help?). Let me know if it works though. There are a bunch of photos from my first week here. I am also up on skype, at least for now, so please email me with your skype name if you have one! Hope all is well with everyone...

Posted by awolfe at 1:29 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 12, 2005

Banquet #2, etc.

I just reread my last entry and I have to say that it comes across as overly critical. I hate to have people think that I'm not enjoying myself here because I really am! The last 24 hours especially have been really great, starting with the Teacher's Day Banquet I attended. Last Friday was akin to appreciation day for teachers and HSFZ (my school) has an annual banquet to celebrate the occasion. I was expecting something similar to what Steven and I went to during our first week here but this was actually a bit different. On Saturday night, we hopped on one of a dozen or so buses and headed out.

For starters, there were over 400 people who attended this event! Every current teacher was invited, as well as all retired teachers in the area--we took over an *enormous* social hall in one of the fancy restaurants. Sidenote- all the fancy restaurants seem to have television sets in the dining areas, that are all turned on during the meal. Why is this? Anyway, since there were so many people it was more or less impossible to get everyone to arrive at the same time. There were actually groups that filtered in over the span of 45 minutes or so, making it unclear to me (at least initially) when the thing was going to start. Once it seemed like enough people were there, a man got up to make a speech. Steven and I got comfortable because one of the other English teachers told us to expect long, boring speeches over the course of the night. Luckily, before I even found a comfy position, applause rang out and the guy sat down! It was a quick "hello, thank you, and enjoy" all rolled into one compact speech--American dignitaries could learn a thing or two from this. At this point, the waitstaff went to work trying to bring a multitude of dishes out to approximately 45 tables at the same time. They began to bring around drinks as well and once again I was bracing myself for a marathon of "baiju" drinking. I dodged the bullet again though because they were pouring Zhujiang, my favorite local beer! Excellent, because now I knew I could hang with the big boys for the scores of different toasts. Anyhow, the food was excellent--even better than the last banquet. The best dish, by far, was some type of spicy curry frog served with pumpkin. Sounds a bit odd but it was *amazing*. I'm not sure I'd order it from a one star restaurant, but it this place was really good.

After people got their fill of food they began the toasting. Usually this starts with a toast for the entire table, followed by people walking around to the other tables to toast other friends and high-ranking school officials. Not to be outdone, I made a concerted effort to toast several of those teachers that have gone out of their way for me. I toasted "David," one of my favorite guys to play basketball with. I toasted the computer guy. I toasted "Howard," one of the heads of the English Dept. We were even introduced to the pleasantly inebriated Principal of the school who spouted off a few mandarin sentences before downing his glass of cognac. Naturally, we followed suit and toasted the man right back. I really enjoy the toasting custom here because it gives you a chance to think about all of the people who are important to you and all those that have helped you. If it were socially appropriate, I would have poured out a glass for all of my friends and family spread out over the rest of the world right now. I did teach several people to say "l'chaim" which they seemed to enjoy. They shouted "ganbei!" and I responded with "l'chaim!" Then we would reverse it. By the end of the night, most people seemed to have a nice buzz going. Once again, they brought out the watermelon and the whole thing shut down almost immediately. All in all, an excellent night.

The next day I got up early and met up with the Yale-in-China crew for dim sum. I'm not sure I ever had authentic dim sum in the U.S. so I didn't have too much to compare it to, but this stuff was really good. It's a little weird to me to have so much meat early in the morning, but I'm as carnivore as they come so I adapted quickly. I was lucky enough to have several guides show me the ropes of dim sum which was helpful--I would have had no idea what to eat otherwise. The Yale kids all speak very good Mandarin which puts me to shame and makes me want to learn immediately if not sooner. Anyhow, we stuffed ourselves silly and then went walking around the city. The highlight of the day was definitely Shamien Island, a small island accessible by footbridge from both sides of the river. This island was inhabited at some point by the French, the British, and several other western influences, making for a much different architectural landscape than the rest of the city. There are cute park benches, cool houses, quiet coffee houses, and some old "antique" shops. There are cars on the island but it's so much quieter than the rest of the city and has a very peaceful vibe to it--my kind of spot. After that, I took advantage of the superior bargaining skills of Diana Lin, and bought a cellphone! That's right--I am officially mobile. My number is as follows: 137-1936-2459. If you're calling from the U.S., you throw in 011-86 before that number to get me. Feel free to call anytime, just remember that it's a 12 hour difference :)

I capped off the day by going to get really good noodles with Diana, Kelly and Andrew (the Yalies) by Sun Yat Sen University where they all teach. The University campus is really nice and also situated in a really cool part of the city. I have grand plans to go back and use their fields for frisbee and soccer, whether they like it nor not. When all was said and done, I was thinking during the subway ride home and realized (maybe for the first time) that it is a huge honor and privilege to be here for the year. There is so much I want to see and do and, despite being a hot, dirty city, there are some really cool spots just waiting to be discovered. PiA really is an amazing opportunity and I plan on taking full advantage of it...

Posted by awolfe at 1:31 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 10, 2005

Contradictions

It's no secret that China is the growing world superpower, obviously the country to supercede the U.S., if they have not done so already. Given this amount of economic, political, military, and industrial strength, there are several inconsistencies I see to their domestic policies. Some of these thoughts are based on small incidents here and there, while others I have formed after more extended conversations with people. Admittedly, I am forming stereotypes and I will be the first one to say that generalizations are never all-inclusive:

1. China is a wasteful country.
I'm not sure that anyone can really argue this point, especially in the cities. As I have mentioned, it's pretty darn hot down here in Guangzhou and, thankfully, most places are air-conditioned. One thing I don't understand is why every building seems to blast the AC and yet leave their doors open to the outside. I'm talking about office buildings, schools, restaurants, and stores-- everyone leaves a large gaping hole to the heat outside, and you can almost see the cold air pouring out, much like opening the freezer door on a hot summer day. I can't help thinking that it's an enormous waste, especially given the number of people that are consuming energy here.
By the same token, China is currently entrenched in the throw-away generation. That is, recycling has yet to take off and most people don't seem to know what it is. Despite the fact that there are waste and recycling receptacles all around the city, the most common way to dispose of trash is to simply toss it down on to the ground. I may have mentioned this already, but if the city didn't employ a small army to constantly clean the streets, we'd all be wading through it up to our necks here. How long will it take before people change their habits? Obviously we still produce FAR too much waste in the U.S., however I think we have more of a grasp of how precious our natural resources are. Then again, maybe I'm being naive here. I do know that I can go running in Boston and not feel like I'm breathing down smog. The same cannot be said for any Chinese city yet.

2. China has seemingly illogical standards of respect.
The other day, Steven and I were invited to a student presentation recounting a school-sponsored summer trip to the states. It was held in a large auditorium where there were several teachers present and approximately 300-400 members of the student body. The students started their lecture/presentation to encouraging cheers and wide-eyed wonder at the photos on the screen of VT and the Green Mountains. They were attentive and interested... for about five minutes. After the initial novelty wore off, they got restless and began talking amongst themselves. I don't mean talking as in whispering quietly, either. I mean talking to the point where there was such a loud din in the room that I couldn't hear the presenters, and I was sitting in the front row! The teachers merely sat by and let it all happen without so much as a glance backward at the misbehaving students. I couldn't help thinking that if this were the U.S. and I was a teacher in there, I would have stopped the whole thing and waited for everyone to shut up, at which point I would have given the room the "you-think-I-won't-suspend-you-but-I-really-will" look. I was doubly shocked by this, given that students are, for the most part, extremely respectful during class.
On the flipside, I noticed some odd behavior by teachers the other day. I was at the gym playing basketball after classes with the students as I waited for the rest of the teachers to show up for our bi-weekly game. A trio of teachers showed up and started dribbling on the court and shooting on the basket that was clearly in use by the students for a pick-up game. They made no effort to say anything like, "It's time for the teachers to have the court," or "Hey if you don't mind we're going to start playing on this hoop--can you move to the other end." Nothing like that. I simply can't see that happening in the U.S. without so much as a comment to the kids. It seems strange to me, then again, we have no cultural standards that have been around for thousands of years. I suppose it's the case that teachers have always had the power and authority to do as they wish in China (minus, you know, during that small Cultural Revolution-thing). It's also interesting that sometimes it feels like we are getting the royal treatment from students, faculty, and staff. Other times it feels like we're a complete after-thought and that we're getting the shaft from the school. We have yet to figure out what determines the treatment.

3. China has yet to actualize any real protection of I.P.R.
Okay, I'll admit it--one of the things that I was psyched about before I came to China was that I'd heard I'd be able to buy any American movie on DVD for about $0.25-0.50. And yes, it's true. There are people who sell DVD's on street corners and even in some legitimate shops. The covers of the movies are clearly done without any care for accuracy or detail, and the spelling, grammar, and information on the boxes are always wrong. A small price to pay for such a luxury though, right? Well, I've actually found that it makes me somewhat uncomfortable and unsatisfied to buy and watch these movies since the quality is so inferior. Sometimes the music overshadows the dialogue. Sometimes the picture is so dark you can't tell what's going on. Sometimes it's just a really muddy picture and sound at the same time. I find myself thinking that I'd much rather pay a bit more and have there be a nice crisp picture and 5.1 sound (not that I have my sound system here with me). Am I quality snob? Maybe. I think it goes beyond that though because for some reason it bothers me that there is no protection for intellectual property rights.
The majority of people involved in hollywood are probably too rich to deserve any pity from this, but someone spent the time to write that movie. Someone spent the time to do sound on that movie. Someone put a lot of thought into the angles and the lighting (unless we're talking about "House of Wax" which was just downright crap). You know what I mean. Those people deserve some credit which they definitely don't get from the Chinese market. It goes beyond movies as well. I'm sure most people heard that the new Harry Potter book came out here in Chinese, months before the official translation was released. The cover looked exactly the same and you'd never be able to tell that it was unofficial except for the fact that apparently it had some sloppy syntax and muffed up minor aspects of the story. For a culture that has long respected the arts, it seems strange that acts like these go mostly unacknowledged by the bigwigs in the Party.

4. Chinese bars overcharge for beer in a major way.
Okay, a comparatively small issue here, but I don't get it! Beers here are generally comparable (if not more expensive) to going out in the U.S.--somewhere between $4-6 for a 12 ounce bottle of Budweiser. A Tsing-tao, probably the most popular domestic, is about the same or slightly cheaper. This is perfectly acceptable in America but completely ludicrous by the Guangzhou standard of living. In comparison, I can go to the grocery store/corner market/7-11/man-on-the-street and buy a 24 ounce bottle of Zhujiang beer (the tasty local brew) for the equivelant of about $0.26. Yes, twenty six cents. What accounts for this difference? I can't be sure, but I'm guessing that the places I have been to thus far have been targeting the small population of foreigners who are here on business or doing what I'm doing, and thus slightly more apt to throw down that kind of money. Not me--I can tell you that much. I think I will be embracing the tried and true method of "pre-partying" at my apartment before I go out in the future. On a side note, I found an Irish pub that serves Guinness. Thank the good lord.

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September 7, 2005

School Culture

After a 36 hour internet black out, I'm back online! I've been teaching for over a week now and there are a few things that I find very interesting about the experience. In one of my first education classes at B.U., we talked about the particular culture of any given school: it's traditions, customs, unwritten rules, written rules, expectations, and norms. For instance, at Newton North H.S. where I taught summer school 2 years ago, the main hallway in the building is called "main street" where students hang out in very distinctive groups and teachers have virtually no voice or authority. At Hall High School, my alma mater, we had a "kickboard" in the back of the school that sports teams would paint over and cover in graffiti-like encouragements and shout-outs.

HSFZ (where I am teaching now), though lacking a kickboard, has an interesting school culture. For starters, there is a very distinct school uniform that students wear ALL the time, both in and out of the classroom and campus. Apparently all high schools have a uniform and they are so identifiable that as I walk around the city, I can ask any of my students about another group and they can tell me the name of the school and where it ranks in terms of best to worst, just by looking at their clothing. As HSFZ is the best high school in the province, these kids love wearing their school uniform and barely take it off, even when playing sports.

Every morning between the 3rd and 4th periods, there is a 15 minute break when everyone marches out to the field in the stadium and participates in a short period of exercise. I guess this is pretty standard in Asian cultures but I am astounded. The speed and efficiency in which they can get over 1800 students out on to the field, lined up, and doing coordinated exercises along with music over the p.a. system would make the U.S. army weep. I try to picture my high school doing it and it's laughable.

Anytime a student speaks up in class, either by raising a hand or being chosen, he or she stands up. I can't tell whether or not I like this practice, but it sure puts people on the spot! I have enjoyed picking on students to answer questions who were clearly not paying attention to me. The rest of the class almost looks down on them for not knowing what to say and this, in turn, forces everyone to stay focused. Not exactly my ideal method, but it is effective.

The 11 different sections here are split up in an interesting way. Section 1 is called the Olympic class, and contains students who are the cream of the crop-- those students who compete on a national and international level in physics, math, and engineering. Sections 2 and 3 are the all stars who didn't make the cut for section 1 but are extremely talented, and from outside the city district (all boarders). The rest of the sections are by subject interest, be it history, politics, music, geography, or one of several other areas.

Despite being across the world and in an entirely different culture, the classic "Breakfast Club-" like groups of students appear in every class. There are the nerds, weirdos, jocks, popular kids, rich kids, poor kids, and well-intentioned but awkward kids. The distinctions aren't always quite as pronounced to me as in an American school but they're definitely there. In addition, there is the subgroup of those whose families are Party members. These students all wear a small red pin above the school insignia on their shirts that signify the party membership (I want one!). It seems to be somewhat of a status symbol, yet does not preclude students from being friends or working together or anything like that. So far as I can tell, it basically means that they're going to be hooked up after school, no matter how well they do.

Teaching in general appears to be much more respected here than in the U.S. While I don't know what an average salary is, I can tell that most teachers here tend to live well. They drive nice cars, dress decently well, and certainly seem to be happy. There are various perks to being a teacher that provide discounts at various stores (much like in the U.S.) and even a national teacher's day which happens to be this weekend. Apparently anybody who has ever taught at the school is welcome and we all go to some fancy restaurant for another banquet, all paid for by the school/city. Needless to say, I am definitely looking forward to it.

A few other funny teaching stories: I mentioned before that I was asked a rather inappropriate question about my dating habits, but I got a few more queries that were even more unexpected. One student asked if I thought racial bias among the Bush administration prevented an adequate response in aid towards the Hurricane crisis in New Orleans(!) Sidenote- I've been following the news of Katrina over here. How awful! Thank god the Betheas, my former Spring Break parents, managed to get out okay. One student asked what time I go to bed, followed immediately by, how long does it take me to fall asleep. Ummm, 5 minutes? I don't know! Another student asked if I thought China was better than the United States (no specifics there, just on an overall level). A different student asked what I thought about Bush in terms of his decision to invade Iraq. Geez! No sugarcoating that one! I find it somewhat difficult in these situations to adequately articulate my criticism of Bush without sounding like I'm trashing America. It could be in my head, but I get the feeling that a lot of the questions are definitely loaded and spoon-fed from either parents or other teachers. It makes me a feel a little awkward. That's about it for now. More to follow soon...

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September 4, 2005

P.S.

Postscript to the last entry...

Social Etiquette- There are several interesting differences over here that sort of make me scratch my head a bit. For instance, it is very common to see mothers or fathers with infants hold their kid up with the child's legs spread apart so they can urinate out in the open. This happens in public both off to the side and also right on the sidewalk. Interesting. It is also perfectly acceptable to hock a loogie anywhere in public, at the feet of anybody with the misfortune of walking by. That happens constantly and I've gotten used to committing evasive action when I hear someone commence the spitting process.

It's completely normal and expected for everyone to shove and elbow each other to get on/off a bus/metro, yet it is not okay for me to wear sandals in public that don't have a back-strap. Men smoke anywhere and everywhere (restaurants, bathrooms, banks, post office, office buildings, etc.) yet you will never see a woman smoking a cigarette in public. Teachers commonly wear jeans and tennis shoes to work, yet I can't take my shirt off while playing basketball because I have some chest hair. It's an interesting dichotomy and I have yet to figure out all the various nuances.

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September 3, 2005

7 Days

It's only been one week in Guangzhou and already I feel like I am years and galaxies away from my old life in Boston. It's unbelievable how much you can learn and experience in only 7 days! Though I am trying my best, it is virtually impossible to dictate all of the funny/frustrating/crazy/enlightening moments of this adventure because it's such a whirlwind experience. I assume that living here will become more routine and somewhat more mundane as the year progresses, but as of now, it's a wild wild world out there.

Several people have asked me to touch on some of the smaller differences I have noticed, so I will do my best to touch on a few:

Basketball- As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been playing after school with both faculty and students. It's a really nice way to get some exercise, meet new people, and brush up on my two handed reverse dunks. There are a few things that have struck me about playing though. First, when playing pick-up games, they never check the ball after a point is scored. It always goes right back into play from the top of the key. Second, they do not play "win by two" which was one of the sacred commandments from my high school days. Third, they never congratulate teammates after making a basket. Now I'm not saying that you need to stop the show and go nuts after every basket, but there have been a few times when someone has made a really nice drive or a long three and I go to slap him five and I get a weird look. Why is that? I do not know.

Public Transportation- I used to complain about the inefficient nature of the T (the Boston subway system) all the time over the past 2 years. Now I have to say, the Guangzhou metro is pretty incredible and puts the T to shame even more. It's clean, safe, fast, and cheap (usually around ~$0.50-0.75). Unfortunately there are only two different lines in the city right now and I'm not on a line so I have to take a bus to get to the closest stop. No big deal, except for the fact that there is a constant traffic jam on city streets. Sidenote- it seems as if there are approximately 2.6 billion bus lines here and I have yet to master more than 2. Anyhow, last night I went to take the bus up to the metro and what should have taken 5-10 minutes in light traffic took all of 45 minutes. I felt like I was trapped in the opening scene of "Office Space" where the old man in the walker was blowing us by. We would advance 3 ft and come to an abrupt stop. A few minutes later, 2 ft and then another stop. I really think I could have gotten there faster if I had walked backwards with a blindfold on.

Taxis- So maybe if the buses are so slow, taxis are the way to go, right? Wrong. At first I thought that cab drivers would be able to weave in and out NYC-style and circumvent a lot of the congestion. Unfortunately that is just not the case. As it stands, driving itself is pretty chaotic here and taxis are more or less in the middle of the driving hierarchy. So far as I can tell, the buses actually rule the roads since they are bigger than everyone else. The idea of lanes on the road is much more of a fluid concept over here and drivers seem to go in and out all the time, without so much as a signal, arm motion, or look. I used to think that I had a near-death experience driving to and from work everyday in Boston two years ago, but being on the road here puts those experiences to shame. There's really no way to describe the chaos and really give it justice so I'll just leave it at that. A word to the wise--don't drive in Guangzhou.

Food- As I mentioned before, supermarkets are already a bit different over here, but buying food can be slightly overwhelming. I think markets are the equivelant of bacteria-disneyland over here because there are so many ridiculous animals and vegetables all sort of hanging out together. Nothing is really refrigerated, milk, juice, eggs, and produce included. When you go to get meat the butcher is just hacking away at the carcass right in front of you. When you go to get fish you pretty much walk up to a big tank and point at whichever one has the best crawl-stroke. Sidenote- it appears to be virtually impossible to be a vegetarian over here. I have yet to see a single all-vegetable dish at any restaurant or store. Wow.

The Language Barrier- Well, some days are better than others. I try to use my 14 words of mandarin as much as I can, but I still feel self conscious about my accent and pronunciation. Guangzhou is definitely tough for those who don't speak chinese and today was a good example. Steven and I decided to head out and meet up with a buddy of his who is teaching at a teacher's college in the city. He got the name and address over the phone, wrote it down, and we headed out to take a taxi. After hailing a cab, Steven went to work showing the piece of paper with the characters to the driver and asking if they knew were it was. The driver gave a nod of acknowledgement and away we went. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the ride should have been about 20 rmb and taken maybe 15 minutes. Well 35 minutes later and 44 yuan in the hole, we pull up to the gate of a college. As we get out, Steven says that we are definitely in the wrong place. Huh. Okay, so we go over and try to ask people how to get to this place and what buses we might be able to take but we pretty much draw blank stares from people. About 3 hours and 4 buses later we made it back to our school, having never made it to his friend's place. Oh well. That being said, I have also had several positive experiences transcending the language barrier. Eating lunch with the other teachers everyday has been an entertaining experience. One of the two heads of the English Dept has been nice enough to sit and talk with me everyday and his English is great. A few other random teachers have also joined us and they generally struggle a lot more, which I can obviously relate to. Sometimes it takes while to communicate but it always ends with a laugh. I even made plans to go out for spicy food and beers sometime next week with a couple of the guys. What more could I ask for?

Social Life- Without speaking mandarin or cantonese, it has been difficult to expand my social life outside the walls of the school to this point. I am itching to start studying the language as soon as possible for this reason (amongst many others). I have looked through the "That's Guangzhou" magazine and sent out a couple of emails regarding various ex-pat sports clubs and social events, but haven't heard back from anyone yet. However, thanks to some contact info from one of the PiA-ers who was here last year, I got in touch with one of the Yale-in-China fellows who teaches English at Sun Yat Sen University. I met up with her and her roommate last night and headed over to their place for noodles and a movie. While I would never recommend the movie "House of Wax" to anybody unless they needed to thoroughly waste two hours, I had fun hanging out and venture to say that I made a couple of new friends.

Random School Story- After I finished teaching on Friday, Steven and I walked out of the building together. As we passed by the last classroom before the stairs, we both happened to glance in to the room and stop dead in our tracks. Up on the screen, projected in 4 ft x 6ft glory, was the old email forward I received years ago of George W. Bush pictures next to comparable photos of an ape. We were both a little shocked but we started laughing pretty hard, apparently loud enough for a few students to hear us. They recognized the humor of the situation and within seconds the entire classroom was in a raucous uproar of laughter. The teacher immediately ran to the door, asked us to come in, and explained in slightly broken English that this was not a class about politics and that they were in no way making any judgements on the leader of the free world. On the contrary, they were actually just doing a scientific analysis of the phenotypical differences between humans and animals. Suuuuuuuuure. I can't imagine that there were *any* subtle messages there at all! I thought it was pretty funny though and we managed to make a big joke out of it before leaving the class. Moral of the story? Vote for a democrat in 2008.

Posted by awolfe at 10:27 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 1, 2005

Firsts

Today was the first day of classes, signifying the end of Camp Guangzhou and the beginning of oh-right-I-guess-I-actually-have-a-job-to-do Guangzhou. All in all, I have to say I was very pleased with how things went. Steven and I were assigned to teach the level of "Senior 2," which is the equivelant of a high school junior. The entire class consists of ~650 students that are split into 11 different sections. I'm no math majpr but that makes for HUGE classes. Luckily, the classrooms are all equipped with TV's, speaker systems, overheads, and connections for laptops which is pretty amazing for any high school. It's funny though because 60 kids are squished into a comparatively small room with only a few fans--no A.C.

I don't know if I have emphasized this enough but Guangzhou is HOT. And by hot I mean HUMID. 60 students in a small enclosed space is a very good recipe for sweat pie. Trust me. Anyhow, Steven and I saw three sections today and taught together, introducing ourselves, the course, and consequently splitting the room up into two sections for the remainder of the year. I am very glad both to have my own class and to limit the number to around 30 students; any more is just overkill and puts a major strain on classroom management. Plus apparently I'm selfish and really like having my own class. By the same token, I recognized today that I really need to work on cooperative teaching. Steven was a bit nervous (having never taught before) and I found myself talking over him a few times because I felt he was too quiet or that he was using overly-complicated words. In other words, I need to chill out a little bit.

It sounds ridiculous but it is tough for me to remember what state I was in on my first day of teaching, over a year ago. I haven't been doing it for very long yet I feel like that was eons ago. On a positive side, B.U. must have done at least something right because I felt very confident, organized, and focused, despite never having taught English before. I am really excited to work with these kids and they seem happy to have us. If only they knew that I am making the course up as I go...

The first funny/awkward moment arose in the second section of the day. We gave the students the opportunity to ask us questions about our lives in America as a sort of get-to-know you activity. The students are somewhat shy and self conscious about speaking English in front of their classmates though so we had to solicit a few volunteers. I picked on a boy in the back corner of the room who seemed to be off in a different world and made him ask me the question he had written down. It was as follows (though in slightly more broken English)-
"How many times have you gone to the movies with a beautiful girl since you were 16?"
I was definitely caught a little off guard! I figured there were a few ways to go with that but decided to stick with humor. After I stopped chuckling I responded with, "Too many to count." He seemed pleased with my response.

After classes today I made my way over to the athletic center (literally a 45 second walk from my apartment) and walked out into the stadium. This morning I met one of the physics teachers in the copy room who asked me if I played football. Those of you from "Fatal Attraction" fame know that I was B-league intramural champion senior year at Wesleyan, so naturally I responded with an enthused, "Yes!" I considered explaining that my ball-handling skills were distinctly lacking but that I could run down anyone on the field without a problem, but I decided against it. So I made my way out to the soccer field and looked for the man but I didn't see him. Maybe I got the time wrong? I didn't want the afternoon to be a complete bust so I went inside to the gym where there are 3 or 4 basketball courts. Again, I knew I would be a bit rusty but I wanted to get some exercise and meet some people.

After standing around clueless for about 10 minutes, a man finally approached me and started speaking cantonese/mandarin, all while pointing to the middle court. He took me over and said something to the group of students playing there, at which point one of them pointed to the side and said, "You will play on that team." I played one game of 3 v. 3 with them after which they all packed up and left. Something I said? No, apparently they get booted off the court at a certain time and the faculty have free reign of the place. A group of 6 or 7 guys of various size and shape came over and we split up into teams. Now with the students I could communicate in broken English but these teachers did not know a single word. Splitting up teams and figuring out what we were playing to was quite a task but I pieced it together. I kept laughing to myself throughout the game because despite the language barrier, I kept yelling out various phrases like I do at home, e.g.: Pick right! Shot! Board! Switch! Up strong! Outlet! For the most part it was probably gibberish to them but I was pleased that more than a few times we managed to work pick & rolls as well as a few backdoor cuts. I am definitely out of shape right now, but my size ended up being a major asset with these guys. Me! Size! I was no giant but I think I out-rebounded everyone on the floor. Heh. I definitely tossed up a couple air balls at the beginning of the first game, but I found my groove eventually and hit a number of threes and lay-ups by the end of the evening. Still got it!! Okay, kind of.

I found that I felt a sense of self-imposed pressure to play particularly well in front of these guys, both to prove myself to them, but also to represent the U.S. After all, this is our game, right? Naismith invented the thing about 45 minutes away from my old home! I felt that I would be letting them down and breaking a stereotype if I got on the court and embarassed myself. This made me a little uptight but after a couple games I think I loosened up. There is definitely some amount of universal basketball body language and trash talking which I thoroughly enjoyed. One of the bigger guys stuffed a lay-up at one point and said something to the guy right after. Immediately everyone went, "Ohhhh!" I can only venture a guess at what he said but I'll bet it was funny. Once again, yet another incentive to learn the language...

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