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December 30, 2005
The Wolfe Family Invades
Wait, there are taxis in China? People exchange currency in China? There's weather in China? No, this joke has not gotten old in the week since we arrived in China. Or, it has not gotten old to the three members of the family who have just traveled east for the first time. China - it's like this whole other country, and Joel, Bonnie, and myself, Ilana, have now been been traveling around Hong Kong and Guangzhou for a week. Here are some of my (Ilana's) impressions and experiences. . .
Hong Kong was almost "Bizarr-o World," where I am "so strong" for wearing a tee-shirt in 70 degree weather and where our mother uses chopsticks to eat. Ari felt that the city was too western and that he was cheating because there was so much English around him. I questioned that because there were many fewer Westerners walking around than I had anticipated. The city itself is an impressive collection of brand new skyskrapers and high fashion stores. The subway was so spotless that you could eat off the floor. I think that the NY MTA could learn a lot about public transportation from the Chinese. While in Hong Kong, we visited the Hong Kong Museum of History, Victoria Peak, the Hong Kong zoo, and one of many markets. These markets are like the shuk in Israel (times ten) where you can find the oddest of objects, like magnets with Jesus on them or tank tops with English words that just don't make any sense when put together. We found random collections of chopsticks, tea sets, football tee-shirts, and crazy cellphone charms, like the Bruce Lee that I wanted Ari to buy. We also celebrated the first night of Hanukkah Hong Kong-style, and lit candles with the Chabad-niks in the middle of Santa's village (no joke) on Hong Kong Island. Yes, it is true, you can find Jews anywhere in the world. After these few days of being in what Ari told us was a bubble, where almost everyone spoke English, we hopped on a train for the mainland. My brother kept telling us that it would be dirtier, louder, and obviously more Chinese, which made me wonder what the Wolfe family had gotten itself into.
First impressions on China as I stood in the line in customs: "Do not bring any items into China that defile the Communist Party." Dorothy, we're not in Kansas anymore. This warning flashed across the screen in passport control in the train station and I suddenly felt nervous. Maybe we would be turned away from the mainland? Luckily though, these worries were for nothing and the whole Wolfe family breezed through. Gone were the (few) Westerners and we entered a new world. As I looked out the window on the way to the hotel I was amazed at the air pollution, tall buildings, and neon lights. Apparently the Chinese believe that bigger and brighter is just better. I kept waiting for pagodas and temples or buildings that were sterotypically Chinese, but I just saw miles and miles of city streets. The amount of construction in this city is unbelievable and it seems that Chinese progress is moving at a break-neck speed. There are slums directly next to brand spanking new high-rise buildings. It's odd to see this, especially considering that we come from a country that tries to preserve its (young) history and save as many historical sites and buildings as possible. But maybe we will take the Chinese approach in a few thousand years and look to the future instead of the past.
As we began to explore Guangzhou, the Wolfe family also began to confuse the population of the city, and we received quite a few long stares. Have these people never seen white skin before? All I could do was stare back and hope that everyone was satisfied in their viewings of a white family riding the subway in the city. Had we gotten lost somewhere or made a wrong turn? No, we were right where we were supposed to be. Ari took on the role of tour guide and gave us an excellent introduction to Guangzhou.
Stop number one: Qingping Market. Scorpions to your left and turtles to your right. What else could a girl want!?! Actually, Ari bought me exactly what every American needs . . . a small statue of Mao. [editor's note--what else do brothers give their sisters for the 3rd night of Hanukah? A Mao statue seemed like just the thing] That is the China that I had expected. Posters of Mao, soldiers patrolling the streets, declarations of love of the motherland everywhere. Obviously not the reality of modern-day China. Although, our next stop was a tea store, where saleswomen tried their hardest to sell us very expensive (and delicious) tea. This was more what I had in mind. We sat for at least an hour trying different brews of Jasmine and Oolong tea, finally finding one that was exactly to my mom's liking. After, we went to two malls, one of which is the largest in Asia. My favorite shop name might have to be "The Friendship Store." I'll take two friends please. Unfortunately, there was no sale on friendship and I walked away empty handed. Our last stop of this busy day was dinner with the Korean family whose children Ari tutors in English. This meal rivaled any that I had in Israel, where the food just kept coming out of the kitchen. The Wolfes had never eaten so much in one sitting, and we feasted on everything from tofu and Kimchi to tempura vegetables and barbequed meat. The family was very sweet and extremely kind to us and we were happy to have met them.
The next day was rainy, but we grabbed our umbrellas and headed out anyway. In Ari's attempt to show us all things Chinese, we headed for his favorite dim sum restaurant. This busy place seemed to be extremely popular and was packed at 10 am on a weekday. Ari's roommate Steven and PiA'er Wendy, who was visiting from Korea, joined us and the six of us were brought directly to a private room. We joked that they wanted to keep us as far away as possible, but Ari told us it was probably the restaurant's attempt to treat us as nicely as possible. Sure . . . I still think we scared everyone. Ari and Steven did an excellent job of ordering us a variety of different dishes and even got something vegetarian for our mom. We were all very satisfied at the end of the meal and decided it was time to see some Chinese historical sites.
The Chen Clan Ancestral Hall was our first stop on this historical tour. Here we entered the China that I had been waiting for, with unbelievable carvings, dragons, and Eastern courtyards. The buildings were quite beautiful, as were the sculptures, with which we endlessly amused ourselves. Hopefully Ari will post some of these pictures. . . Next stop on the history express train was the Mosque Dedicated to the Prophet, which we were turned away from because we are (shockingly?!) not Muslim. Without missing a beat we headed to Guangxiao Temple with its very large Buddha at the entrance. This was my first time in a temple like this, and Ari explained how to light some incense and say a personal prayer. The smell of incense was rather intense but so much more authentic than the sticks that all American college students think is cool to burn in our dorm rooms. After our walk around the grounds we headed for lunch. We luckily happened upon a vegetarian restuarant and ordered kung po chicken (with fake chicken), thai curry shrimp (with mock shrimp), spicy tofu, and an excellent eggplant dish. After this quick pit-stop, we headed out for some more culture. Stop number three on the history express was Liurong Si, the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees, where Ari and I climbed the nine story pagoda in the middle of the grounds. After breaking a sweat on this climb we decided to rest in Ari's apartment before heading out to the all-you-can-eat Japanese buffet. Delicious!
The weather was finally cooperating with us on Thursday and we decided to finally get out to Yuexiu Gongyuan, or Yuexiu Park. Strangley you have to pay to enjoy nature in Guangzhou, which made me greatly appreciate Central Park even more than I already do. But, before we even made it to the park we were lucky enough to be out on the street on Shamian Dao (Shamian Island), where our hotel is, just in time for the mid-morning exercises of the local elementary school. The patriotic, military style march began playing and the kids began filing out of the building into the small square in the middle of the street. As the music played and the kids stretched I saw a few soldiers walk past, making me feel as if I were in an alternate universe. Tradition is clearly very important to the Chinese and these children were probably doing some of the same routines that their parents had done years before. After staring and gawking for a few minutes, we did head out on the subway to the park. I was amazed at the enormity of the grounds and the different areas that we could visit. The first stop was Wuyang Shixiang, or the Five Rams Statue. It was very large, slightly odd, yet interesting nonetheless. After we headed to the memorial for Dr Sun Yat-Sen and climbed quite a few sets to stairs to the look-out near the top of the tower. Of course Ari and I entertained other visitors by posing for a picture for our parents with Ari looking totally disinterested and me pretending to strangle him. Brilliant! Unfortunately we had to leave this natural wonderland and head out to Ari's school because we were his special guest speakers.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, all four members of the Wolfe family are rock stars here at Ari's school. We were greeted with smiles, cheers, and declarations of, "Happy Hanukkah!" We visited two classes on Thursday where we answered a wide range of questions, covering everything from what our first impressions of Guangzhou and China are to why Jewish people are so good in business. I thought that it was a joke that Chinese people hold Jews in such high regard, but nope, they are serious. We were exposed to every stereotype imaginable and had only about five minutes to break their misconceptions. I'm not sure we were so successful, but at least it was a start. I was also asked an excellent question about the immigrant experience in America and also had about two minutes to explain how foreigners are accepted into Western society. Rather difficult to do on the spot. After these two classes we sat out on the bridge in the courtyard and waited for visitors to Ari's English corner. As his posters around school say, "Want to practice your English? Holla!" We had many guests and spent a while chatting with the students. The girls that I spoke to asked how I spend my free time, what I think about Chinese society, and wondered if I would consider settling outside of the U.S. They also explained that their society is still very, very traditional and that their parents tell them what to do and that they have very little choice but to listen. One female student explained her problem with this; she is told what to do, but is told that she needs to have her own opinions at the same time. How do these two things go together? This same student and a friend of hers also told me that they see Chinese society as being Americanized. I found this fascinating because a minute earlier I was speaking about tradition, but also because in the few days that I have spent here on the mainland, I find this country to be as far from America and the West as possible. Starbucks and McDonalds are the benchmark for these students, which to me only indicate the very beginnings of Americanization. Everyone in the family had equally enlightening and interesting conversations, and our dad especially, was very pleased to have had the chance to speak with the students. As Ari told us, in that hour, we learned more about China than most foreigners will in a lifetime.
Classes continued the next day and we answered more questions and asked some of our own. When our dad asked the class what they would bring with them from China if given the opportunity to visit America. The answers ran the gamut from "my favorite book," to "soil," to "Chinese culture." Fascinating. After a quick lunch in the teacher's cafeteria, where my dad was refered to as being "so strong" for wearing a tee-shirt in fairly warm weather, we got to celebrate the New Year Chinese-style in the individual classrooms of Ari's students. Again we were treated as rockstars and were forced (or requested) to sing, play games, and eat with everyone. Look for our rockin' version of "Let It Be" in a music store near you . . . Now we are making latkes for some of Ari's friends. I mean, what else is there to eat in China except for traditional Jewish food? Just kidding.
I'm sure Ari will finish the tale of the Wolfe family invasion of China. We still have a day left back in Hong Kong and hopefully a day in Macau. There's still time left to get into trouble . . .
As I end this entry I have this to say: I am quite impressed with China, Guangzhou, and mostly my brother. He has managed to learn a fair amount of Chinese pretty damn quickly, create strong relationships with his students, and make a huge impression on the faculty of the school. He has made China home, which is no small feat for a white kid from New England who knew no Chinese before September. I am quite proud of him and all that he has done here. Holla!
Posted by awolfe at 11:23 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
December 23, 2005
"May Ghairstman!"
May Ghairstman! Maaaaaaaay Ghairstman!!
I bought a bunch of different holiday presents for people here and the only wrapping paper I could find was plastered with this phrase, obviously an entertaining butchering of "Merry Christmas." As per Steven's suggestion, I've decided to tell people that it's actually Norweigan. Ha!
The countdown has finished and the Wolfe clan officially arrives this evening. Crazy! That means I'll probably be taking a little vacation from blogging as I will be busy trying to make sure my parents don't get run over by renegade motorcycles. That said, my sister did threaten to write a guest entry while she's here so keep your eyes out for that. Otherwise, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, be it Hanukah or that other one. I will be happilly sipping my gin and tonica Sunday night at Chabad in Hong Kong. Until then...
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December 22, 2005
Democracy and Johnny Damon
One of my students recently sent me an article that got published in a local indie publication here and I was incredibly impressed. I think a great deal of people in America are under the impression that Chinese people are brainwashed by the government and education system at a young age. My experience has obviously proved that to be false but this is the icing on the cake. The following essay was written by a 17 year-old high school student without any outside assistance or editing:
Democracy in China
"When people think about China these days, they see a country on the cutting edge of major changes â€" both economic and internal. Coming out of a 5000-year historical cocoon defined by many of us looking back at our early beginnings as a slave and feudal society, the idea of a democracy and the freedoms that come with it hasn't been something that China's despotic emperors wanted to encourage. As far as they were concerned, there was no civilization as great as China's and democracy could remain millions of miles away from their shores. But over the past 100 years, China has taken steps towards democratic reforms, which have caused the decadent feudal dynasties to collapse â€" the arrogance or their power peeled away.
Many outsiders automatically point to the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 as the turning point for China's democratic revolution when many students gathered first in the intension to cherish the death of the beloved Zhou Enlai. But it turned out totally different. Of particular interest were many handwritten poems that were posted there. On the surface, these poems could appear to a naïve observer to commemorate ancient events from Chinese history, but they actually expressed critical sentiments regarding those in power in China while allowing some distance to be kept between the protesters and the wrath of the government For example, one poem implicitly criticized Jiang Qing by attacking the Empress Wu Zetian, a 7th century Tang Dynasty empress who ruled after her husband died. Such a massive outpouring of sentiment alarmed the government. In an emergency session meeting, the Politburo in the Great Hall of the People just west of the Square determined to remove all the wreaths and poems. This was done that night.
But the fact is China's first democratic campaign came on May 4, 1919. Known as May fourth Movement or Wusi Yundong, it was the first mass movement in modern Chinese history. The student demonstrations represent the most visible events in a process of change. Intellectuals identified the political establishment with China's failure in the modern era, and hundreds of new periodicals published attacks on Chinese traditions, turning to foreign ideas and ideologies. The movement split into leftist and liberal wings. The latter advocated gradual cultural reform as exemplified by Hu Shih who interpreted the pragmatism of John Dewey, while leftists like Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao introduced Marxism and advocated political action. The movement also popularized vernacular literature, promoted political participation by women, and educational reforms. And even as China becomes a major player on the world economic stage, many westerners are mistakenly informed that our country is inhumane â€" that the government doesn't grant freedom of speech and that it violates human rights. The West does not see the rays of democracy in China, only the cloud cover of the People's Republic of China, which was founded in 1949. They see that the community owns the major resources and means of production, and there's no public voting in China, and students are pressed too much etc. -------all these gives them the impression that there's no democracy or human right here. We do admit that all the above are true, BUT- .
But democratic reforms truly are happening every day in China. The situation is different. And despite of this, more and more access to politics are being achieved, since government is reporting more and more about its work, and the impact of the Internet has caused the public to learn different points of view without simply accepting one way of thinking. All of a sudden, the customer's needs and individual's legal rights have grown alongside the rise in our economy. On the other hand, I think that the population can vote does not mean that the population has a "say" in government policy. True, the government must respect the population wishes for it is the who elect them, but how many times have we all seen American protests going on because the some of the populace is displeased with government policy? It is also true however that in a communist regime that the state is the media, the law and judge. But how many American politicians have their hands (stock, ownership etc.) in the media? How can we watch what goes on on CNN and not say that it has a republican bias? So as you can see, Communist and Democratic forms of government are very contrary to each other. As they both have benefits and disadvantages, people continuously argue over the superior choice, despite history.
But the question remains â€" will China ever be as democratic as America? Will the system that works well in a country where freedom has rung in people's minds for centuries, also work in China? I guess that should be questioned. We should take China's unique history and situation into account. While many Chinese are well-educated today, especially my generation, more than half of our population was brought up to believe that democracy was not the best choice for our country. Many are concerned that democracy threatens national unity. Maybe they are right. Maybe America's version of democracy won't work well in China, but that doesn't mean that China isn't continuing to take steps towards reforming our civilization."
Wow, right? I don't think most American high schoolers can think on that sort of metacognitive level. I find this btoh impressive and encouraging. If everyone can imitate this level of independent thinking, I think the future of the world is in good hands.
On a completely separate note, Johnny Damon to the Yankees?! Good lord, I leave the country for a couple of months and suddenly there's chaos. This is absolutely monumental and I can't fathom this kind of signing. I've always hated Damon but I guess I will have to try my best to like the idiot. We'll see. Besides that, the Wolfes arrive in China in less than 48 hours! Woohoo!
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December 18, 2005
Even-Steven?
I'm feeling a bit like I've been caught in an old Seinfeld episode lately. I can't remember the plot of the whole thing, but basically Jerry feels like everything evens out for him--he throws $20 out the window and someone brings him $20 that they owed him; One friend is happy and content while another is frustrated and stressed; One thing goes up and another goes down--you get the idea.
So on the most concrete level, a couple of my friends here are applying to graduate school (thank *god* I'm done with that... for now, anyway). They have all been extremely worried about the process and I have done my best to help them out. After much toil and tribulation, I have two friends who are done and one who is still working at it. Okay so that's 2-1 but you get the idea.
Lately I have been playing like crap on the soccer field. I mean just embarassingly bad. I think I'm just in a rut but it's humiliating. I feel like everyone else on the team has been looking over at me thinking, "what's with this guy??" On the other end of the spectrum, I feel like NBA material on the basketball court. I've been playing really well and the other guys have noticed. I've started shooting a lot more, throwing ridiculous around-the-back passes, and rebounding like Dennis Rodman. It's fun!
Meanwhile, one of my Chinese tutors is completely m.i.a. She left for Hong Kong about three weeks ago now and I haven't heard from her. It was only supposed to be a quick 5 day trip so I'm a bit concerned. For all I know, she eloped or something and is never coming back. The weird thing is that I don't even know her last name or have anything other than a cell phone number for her. I would have NO idea how to track her down if she were in trouble. The upside is that I've saved a bunch of money by not having lessons and was thus able to buy my oven... which is great! I cooked some backed chicken last week with carrots, celery, onions, and mushrooms last week. Yum! I also made garlic bread which is always a plus. Garlic really does make everything better. Am I wrong?
In terms of teaching, we're getting towards the end of the semester which means the students are getting more stressed and that we as teachers have more work to do. I haven't officially written my exam yet but I know my kids are dying to know the format. Boy, I can barely remember high school finals. They seem like ages ago! Anyhow, even though I have a lot more work this time of year, the students have made it worth it. A bunch of students, both mine and Steven's, have invited us out to have meals with their families which is great.
On Saturday Steven and I had lunch with "Bonic," one of Steven's kids who also happens to be on the school badminton team. We went back to his home by Baiyun Mountain and watched some videos of his badminton matches. Very cool! I thought we were going to have a home-cooked meal but instead we went out to a traditional Guangzhou restaurant with amazing Cantonese cuisine. I tried mini water snake, pig's lung, and some other really tasty dishes. We literally ate for almost three hours, which is my kind of meal! Bonic's mother, in true motherly fashion, kept filling up my plate and telling me to eat more. It was genius.
After the meal we went and "hiked" Baiyun mountain which took all of about 15 minutes. It's more like a hill than anything else, but it gives a really cool view of the city which I appreciated. So yeah, we've got another few meals planned with various students and their families. In a selfish way, I'm hoping that the news spreads and that other families invite us out as well. Besides the obvious benefit of an amazing meal, it's great to get to know the students on another level and to meet their parents, see where they live, and learn about their history.
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December 13, 2005
Sandwiches and (not-so) lonely planets
The past few weekends I have been doing an ongoing lesson in my tutoring sessions regarding description. I took a page from one of my most memorable middle school lessons: how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I vividly remember Mrs. Dunn explaining the assignment and thinking that it would take about 5 minutes. Boy, was I wrong!
For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, this is a lesson in which you need to write down, in detail, how to make a pb & j sandwich, to someone who has never made one before. It sounds like a piece of cake but if presented well, the teacher quickly shows the student how much they're leaving out. For example, if the student writes step 1 as "slice two pieces of bread," the teacher needs to respond with, "how? with what? how big? I've never sliced bread," and so on. I thought it would be a fun exercise to try since I learned so much from it years ago.
The first issue though, was what to describe. They don't exactly eat pb&j here on a daily basis. In fact, when I asked Robin (the older Korean boy) if he knew what it was, he laughed and said he had never heard of a sandwich with peanut butter *or* jelly. Indeed. Okay, so what else? I thought about having him describe the process of making sushi but I didn't think I knew enough about it to guide him. After chatting with him about what kind of sandwiches he ate, we settled on a tuna fish sub. I have no idea if this is a common meal (or snack) for him, but he seemed excited about it so whatever.
I gave him ten minutes to write out draft number one of directions and he finished in about six, including roughly eight steps. I chuckled to myself and went to town on it. "How do I use a knife?," I inquired, "do I hold it by the sharp edge?" He started to figure out his shortcomings rather quickly and worked hard to correct his mistakes which was great. He was supposed to edit the whole thing for homework (which he did), but even after two one hour sessions, we haven't gotten past opening the can of tuna fish, and we're around step fourteen or fifteen. I love it.
On a separate note, I must give credit where credit is due. I think I mentioned before that I bought a "Lonely Planet" mandarin phrasebook in Dali when I was there a month ago. I was excited about my purchase... until I unwrapped it and discovered that it did not use pinyin, the standard romanization system for words here, but rather something completely different. Learning pinyin is not difficult, but it takes some serious time and I suppose they were aiming to please people who had no background in the language. For me though, this was a disaster. On a whim, I decided to email the company and ask them if I could exchange it for one of the earlier editions. Lo and behold, I got a personalized email right back and the coordinator promised me she'd do her best. I sort of forgot about it until today when I checked the mail and saw I had a package from Lonely Planet Australia. Woohoo! They came through alright, which is extremely impressive to me. They never asked for proof of purchase from me or anything (not that I had one, since I didn't get a receipt)! So thumbs up for Lonely Planet. Don't buy their 5th edition mandarin phrasebook, but support them whenever you can.
On yet another completely separate note, we had another soccer match yesterday. Once again I had no idea until I jogged out to the field and saw everyone in full uniform. Interesting. I didn't see another team around though--a bit odd. As we were warming up, I discovered that we were going to play the student team that won the school championship. I couldn't quite understand which side challenged which, but there was definitely some sort of challenge involved. We started off playing really well and quickly went up 2-0. The score was 2-1 at the half and I was feeling pretty good about our chances.
Alas, it was not to be. We sub-ed out two of our best players and the student team went to town, scoring another SIX unanswered goals. This, mind you, was humiliating to me. I hate losing anytime (have I mentioned that?) and I sure as heck did not want to lose to my own students! I was playing right fullback but since we had virtually no talent on offense (not to mention a serious lack of conditioning in the front field), I started running the length of the field playing both ends. I didn't score a goal but I did set up our 3rd score--too little, too late. Oy. Naturally, today in class I had several kids ask me what happened in a cocky sort of way. I told them we wanted a rematch.
Other than that, we are approaching t-minus 9 days until the Wolfe clan arrives in China. Wow. I hope they're excited because I know I am!
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December 11, 2005
The Perks
There are many perks to working through this PiA fellowship and I am doing my very best to take advantage of each and every one. The first is the apartment. Our apartment here was not exactly in top top shape when we arrived, but I have made it my mission to spruce the place up in a major way. We are lucky enough to not pay rent and still have enough disposable income to improve the place. Since arriving, I have purchased a chess board, wall map, sound system, couch, pillows for the couch, book case, new pots, new pans, and my latest investment--an oven!
I was inspired after our Thanksgiving meal to seek out an oven, especially after Ms. Meggie Lu fed me a couple other amazing oven-cooked meals. I should preface this story by saying that ovens are rare in China. Most homes and apartments do not have them. Most hotels and restaurants don't have them. Only the few western-friendly establishments around have ovens so there's not exactly a big market for them. I asked my friends where they procured their ovens and they told me about some mystical far off warehouse area where hotels go to buy appliances. With only a bus number and crude directions in hand, I headed out in search of the promised land.
After traveling on two different buses and two different subway lines, I finally found it. I was told that it would be extremely difficult to find the exact store with electric ovens, but I scoffed at the warning. I figured that if I got to the general area, it would be no problem. Well, ummm, I can't say they were wrong. This place was GIGANTIC! There must have been hundreds of mini shops all in this one warehouse area. I started to wander around and did not see any ovens. Hmm. I must have wandered for about 20 minutes until I decided to just head back. Naturally, as I was walking out, the very last store I walked into had 4 ovens in different sizes. I asked for the biggest one (not very big at all) and got psyched up to bargain. I asked how much and he said 200--fully 200 less than what I expected to pay. I must have balked for a split second too long because when I said 175, he responded in English with, "So cheap already!" I forked over two crisp one hundred yuan bills and happily walked out. I haven't cooked with it yet, but I plan to christen it this week with some form of roast chicken. Yum!
Another perk of this position is the amazing people I come into contact with. As I've mentioned before, I tutor two Korean boys every Sunday. Last week the mother asked me if I would like to have dinner with them this week. Home-cooked Korean food? For free?? Wild horses couldn't keep me away! So after our lesson today, I walked out to a dining room filled with an entire table of different dishes. We had kimchi, bulgogi, some sort of potato-vegetable pancake, some shrimp creation, seaweed and mussel soup, and what they translated as jelly fish. It didn't sting me, and it sort of resembled jellyfish, but I'm pretty sure something was lost in translation there. Regardless, it was all incredible. I feasted like there was no tomorrow and they seemed all too happy to keep filling up my plate. Then, of course, we had great fresh fruit for dessert along with chocolate cake, ice cream, and ginger tea. Yum!
Yet another perk of this job is vacation time. In less than two weeks my family will be here and I get a 5 day weekend for Christmas. About two weeks after that I get about three and a half weeks for the Chinese Spring Festival (their New Year). Woe is me--I don't know where to go or what to do! I can't decide whether to go somewhere random in China (Qingdao? Harbin? Lhasa?) or make my first international venture abroad (Chiang Mai? Singapore? Hanoi?). Tough life, huh? I'm hoping that some PiA-ers will start take advantage of our offer of hospitality here because lord knows I will be imposing on a heckuva lot of people in the coming weeks. I'm comfortable on floors though--doesn't take too much to make me happy.
I'm not quite sure if it's a perk or not, but working at the high school does make you a minor celebrity. Everyone knows us (even they aren't our students) and says hello when they see us. It's friendly in that way, which is great. The downside is that we are expected to be at almost all school functions, regardless of timing or content. There was some celebration this weekend that Steven and I missed for various reasons and I'm hoping we don't get any flack for it. No worries though--I think we'll make up for it with our end-of-the-year performance. There is a big to-do at the end of the month and we were convinced to give a short musical performance. Ha! I'm not sure what we're going to do yet but I have a couple ideas brewing...
Being the big fish in the small pond, I got the opportunity this past week to guest host one of the student radio shows which was a blast. We took turns playing different English songs over the P.A. system at the school and chatted about music in between. I played Martin Sexton, Guster, Jeff Buckley, Glen Philips, and even a tune by my good friend Sam Bigelow. Ha! I haven't gotten any feedback on the show yet, but I know I had fun so whatever. I might even do it again...
On a separate note, one of my brightest students here just impressed the heck out of me by reading through the entire Allegory of the Cave (Plato) in her spare time... in English. We had a conversation about the Matrix and the Truman Show and I thought she would appreciate it so I gave her the information on it. Knowing how busy the students here can be, I did not expect her to look through it for some time. Silly me--she's already finished it and begun analyzing it. The students here never cease to amaze me.
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December 9, 2005
Informal Dialogue
The last two weeks I've been working with my kids on teaching more informal speech. We've gone over some basic slang (e.g. "what's up?") as well as some slightly more obscure phrases. I have to admit-- I get an absolute kick out of the fact that almost all of my students now say goodbye to me at the end of class by either shouting out, "Later!!" or, even better, "Peace!" They seem to enjoy learning these types of phrases and I am more than happy to teach them how to go beyond the basics.
That seems to be very common here. For the people that do spend the time to truly learn some English, they are limited to the basic greetings of "Hello, how do you do?" or "Good afternoon, how is the weather?" I don't know where they get these from but it's a difficult habit for them to break. As such, it has been a breath of fresh air to hear students walking up to me saying, "What's up?!" I laugh and say "not too much, you?" They are definitely still getting used to it though as sometimes I will say "where are you headed?" and they will say "not too much." Baby steps, ya know?
The best though, is that I've taught my kids the following exchange:
-Hey buddy, what's goin' on?
-Chillin'.
That might be my favorite right there. Besides the fact that "chillin'" is a very common phrase with younger people in the states, it's also one that I commonly use, in the right context of course. This is also somewhat of an homage to my friend Paul (spent time in S. Korea on a Fulbright) who taught his middle schoolers to begin every class with a similar greeting process. Gotta love it.
So we graduated from basic salutations and moved on to a full conversation. I modified an old PiA lesson and handed out the following dialogue to my class, with instructions to read out loud in pairs:
Chris: Hey, 'sup Jordan? Where you headed?
Jordan: Oh hi, Chris. Not too muchâ€"'s goin' on with you? I'm off to the library to hit the books.
Chris: Oh, bummer. I was gonna ask if you wanted to go grab a drink or shoot some pool.
Jordan: Yeah, sucks. Thanks thoughâ€"woulda been fun, but if I don't do well on this Chinese test tomorrow, I'm totally screwed. You know how rough that class is!
Chris: Yeah, dude. Yo, why are you taking Chinese anyway? Isn't that language impossible? Why don't you just do Spanish or something?
Jordan: Hey, believe meâ€"I thought about quitting. Thing is, Pat is in that class and we've sorta been hitting it off. I think I'm going to ask him/her out this weekend.
Chris: Oh man! You mean Pat Rodriguez? Wow, she/he is so hot! That girl/guy is smokin'! You're really going to ask him/her out? Boy, you're bolder than I thought. Maybe you're moving up in the world!
Jordan: Well, we'll see how it goes. I'm not counting on anything. Truth be told, I'm actually pretty nervous about it.
Chris: Aww, don't be nervous. If you let him/her know that you're nervous, you'll scare him/her off. You have to make him/her think that you're, ya know, THE MAN/THE WOMAN. Know what I mean?
Jordan: Oh I hear ya. But come onâ€"like you're one to talk? When was the last time you asked someone out? Exactly.
Chris: Okay, okay. You made your point. That's pretty cool though. Lemme know how it goes.
Jordan: Will do. Okay, I gotta bounce. Later.
Chris: Peace.
Since almost every other word is some kind of idiom or slang, they then had the task of trying to decipher this dialogue and figure out what everything means. I tried to explain the concept of using the context to figure it out, but I think that has been lost on a good number of them. Regardless, I have been able to lead groups of students step-by-step through a process of discerning meaning from this so-called gobbledygook.
Some of my better classes have "translated" virtually all of the phrases in one class period. Others have struggled quite a bit more and come up with some hilarious responses. For example, one class was convinced that a "hot" girl was a dangerous girl. I laughed pretty hard and told them that they may be right but that that wasn't quite what I was looking for. Heh. Another class suggested that to hit the books was to sabotage them. Hmm. Not exactly. Suffice it to say that it's been a really fun lesson.
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December 7, 2005
Winter?
Just when I thought it was safe to walk outside with only short-sleeeves, we have reached full-on winter here in Guangzhou. Yesterday was approximately 45 degrees... and that was during the day! I have no idea how cold it got at night, but it was certainly not warm. My body was completely shocked at first by the onset of the cold wave, but I have survived thus far.
Hearing a forecast for cold weather, I took my tutoring money from last week and headed out to good ol' IKEA to buy myself a comforter. I could have bought one for slightly cheaper elsewhere, but I decided that this was not an investment to mess around with. I wanted quality, I wanted durability, and by god I wanted warmth! So I bought their next-to-warmest down quilt and lugged it home just as I could feel the arctic breeze blowing in.
I must say, I was absolutely dreading this cold front. All of the teachers had been talking about it for the last few days and all I could do was think back to last winter in Boston when my housemates and I were too poor to afford turning the thermostat above 55. In my mind I was kicking myself lightly--didn't I come here to avoid a real winter? What happened to being in a sub-tropical climate?? As I got ready for bed and put on a t-shirt, I was practically shivering--not a pleasant sensation.
I proceeded to burrow my way under the covers though and it was positively marvelous. The new quilt was excellent and I slept a blissful sleep. As I drifted off, I felt like I was in a different world as up to this point, my entire China experience has revolved around heat and humidity. Morning came around and I almost forgot the feeling of waking up on a cold day in a warm bed. It is great to be toasting under multiple layers of blankets and quilts with the cold air on your face. Is there anything as nice on a cold morning? Maybe it's a New Englander thing. Who knows. All I know is that I am embracing the change in weather.
Now, of course, getting out of bed is an entirely different story. I'm glad I bought a little rug for the side of my bed because there's almost nothing worse than stepping out on to a freezing cold wooden floor on a frigid winter's day. Regardless of that investment, it was a rude awakening. I wanted nothing more than to crawl right back under the covers and sleep for a few more hours. However, after I got over the initial shock of a Guangzhou day devoid of sweat, I started to acculturate myself to the new climate.
While it wasn't quite as cold today, it was still very much a winter day... and I liked it. The air was crisp and somehow masked some of the usual pollution. The cold weather has had the strange effect of finally making it feel like a significant amount of time has passed since I arrived. Up until now, it's been one long summer interspersed with minor flashes of autumn. This is a different worls. And since I know it won't ever snow here (I think it has once in the last 100 years), I'm perfectly willing to accept the cold for a little while.
Winter is often a welcome change in the northeast of the states too, at least for a little while. Winter means holidays, snow, vacation, skiing, big comforters, hot chocolate, christmas lights, fleece, fires, and possibly even days off from school or work. Sure, the novelty wears off sometime around the end of January (or the third major shoveling), but for a while there it's really fun! So right now I'm also in the honeymoon phase of winter and I'm loving it. I went for a run today with a long sleeved shirt on and it brought me back to my high school "indoor" track days of training outside in sub-zero temperatures. The air was cold but my body warmed right up as usual about a mile into it. The Chinese were looking at me like I was crazy for running in shorts, but little do they know that I used to run in shorts during blizzards. If Coach Butterfield can do it, I can do it.
After my run, I also decided to get back into the weight room for the second time in three days. It seems like soccer is winding down a bit so the free weights are a perfect substitution. The other day I was all by myself but today there was a student in there along with me. I started off with the bench press as usual (complete with a wooden bench--only in China) and he stared at me the entire time. After I finished, he walked over and attempted to put up what I had been doing. I could see this ending in disaster so I lingered around the area in case I needed to play rescue. Sure enough, the bar came crashing down on his chest on the very first rep so ran over to pick it up. I recommended that he maybe start a little lighter next time. If I knew the right Chinese words, I would have given him a lecture about safety in the weight room but instead I just walked over to do some lat pulldowns. I think he learned his lesson anyway.
The forecast calls for the weather to get back up to the mid-sixties in another few days and I venture to say that I'll miss the cold. We'll see. Either way, it's been nice for a little while. On a completely separate note, I have discovered a bread at Park n Shop, my favorite grocery store, that tastes *exactly* like a pretty decent challah. I can only assume this is a huge coincidence since there is virtually no Jewish influence in this entire country. Either way, I'm psyched and I plan on making it a part of my weekly shopping run. Yum!
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December 4, 2005
3 Month Reports & Presents
The calendar pages have flown by and I have gone past the three month mark here. As I said before, in some respects I feel like I've been here forever but in others I still feel like I just arrived. One of the responsibilities of being a PiA fellow is filling out an extensive report at the three month mark, detailing the experience thus far in terms of housing, working, traveling, eating, and pretty much anything else. These reports are used by the PiA office to assess our site, our work, and our overall level of satisfaction.
In addition, they are used by all of the new applicants at the interview stage to entice and recruit them for the posts. Though it took almost two hours, I actually enjoyed the process of filling mine out. It necessarily forced me to look back and reflect on my experience thus far. What were my first impressions? What was tough about the transition? What do I think about my environment? Not that I've forgotten already, but I did enjoy going back to read some of my first entries on this very website.
I must say that I think I gave the place a glowing review. I know that PiA has had mixed experiences here in the past few years, but I'm all about it. Sure, Guangzhou is hardly a mecca of culture, but my day to day existence is pretty amazing. I wake up late. I teach incredible students. I eat great food that costs next to nothing. I play sports with my fellow teachers. I take amazing trips to see different parts of China. I have an awesome apartment that I have truly made into home. All in all, not too shabby.
There is one section of the report that asks about what you can't find, a.k.a. what do you crave from home. Though it may be expensive, there are a number of international-food markets that have almost anything you could ever want from the U.S. or Europe. The only thing I could come up with? Kosher-style dill pickles. Baby dills, ideally, but I'd settle for almost anything. Back in the states (and my former housemates can attest to this), I used to snack on pickles daily. I'd walk into the kitchen, look in my pantry, walk to the fridge, poke around for a minute, and then inevitably settle on eating a couple baby dills. Once I discovered the "zingers," the baby dills pickled with hot peppers, I was truly sold. So yeah--that's the only thing I've been craving.
Truth be told, I have barely had any of the western food that is available to me. There are a couple expat bars where you can get burgers and other such delicacies, but I have yet to spring for it. There is also a pizza hut, KFC, or McDonalds around every corner, but I have yet to set foot inside any of them. I could definitely go for pizza, but I hear that it's overpriced and just not the same. Count me out. I'd rather spend 5 kuai and have an enormous bowl of steaming noodles any night.
Coinciding with the due date of the 3 month report was a visit by non other than Anastasia Vrachnos, Executive Director of PiA and one of the coolest people I've ever met. Though the visit was short, it was sweet indeed. Unfortunately I had to tutor for a few hours when she was around, but I managed to meet everyone just in time at a restaurant for a properly lavish dinner. One of the vice principals was there along with the two main heads of the English department and another random bigwig from the school. We had a great time laughing and eating, while chatting about how things were going.
I was complimented yet again for my prowess on the track and subsequently challenged to a drink-off of sorts with one of the head guys. Having never run away from competition, I was all about it. We switched from wine to beer and were off. I think everyone around conceded victory without much of a fight but that was fine with me--I didn't really feel like going toe to toe for 8 enormous bottles. I was informed though that it is considered an honor when someone fills your glass up to the very brim with beer. I'll have to keep that one in mind. As we continued to drink, it became more and more clear that the school sees Steven and I in the simplest of terms, the most convenient definitions: Steven is the intellectual and I am the jock. I find this pretty funny and have no intention of trying to correct them that Steven actually goes for runs most days of the week and that I also read and study in my spare time. I like the idea that they see me as an athlete and probably have lower expectations for my teaching and language skills. I can only pleasantly surprise them!
Anastasia also reminded me that I had to make a decision on next year in the near future. Oy. There's no part of me that wants to contemplate next year when I am enjoying the here and now so much. Basically I can stay right here in Guangzhou, move to somewhere else in China to teach, move to somewhere else in China to work at an N.G.O., move to a post in a completely different country (hmmm-Thailand?), or end my Asia experience and head back to the states. I am nowhere close to making a decision, but I know that the date will creep up on me before I know it. I must admit though--just the thought of readjusting back to the U.S. is overwhelming right now.
On a completely separate note, I received a couple of belated birthday presents which has been very fun. It can be my birthday for the rest of the year! I got some taco and burrito spices which I plan to put to very good use in the near future. I got a couple recent New Yorkers. I got a couple CD's. However, I got a package that absolutely trumps everything else I've received up to this point- an enormous package of Murdick's Fudge straight from Edgartown, MA. Vineyard fudge! Okay, so the stain stick from my mom was a heckuva lot more important in the grand scheme of things, but chocolate of this magnitude is hard to deny. It also made me nostalgic for summer, Long Point beach, goblers from Humphries, talls at the Newes, and singing--everything I love about the island. No matter where I am in the world, I think the vineyard will always be on my mind on some level. There's just something about that place...
Posted by awolfe at 11:24 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 1, 2005
It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas
Long time no blog! I'm going to back date this to when I actually meant to write it since I've been so busy. I can't quite put my finger on anything in particular, but the last week or so has been non-stop. Teaching, lesson-planning, food shopping, cleaning, etc. all added up into a week devoid of writing. Not that I didn't have anything to say...
So Guangzhou is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. This is comforting, annoying, cute, and gaudy all at the same time. It's comforting because it reflects the passing of time, the presence of familiar Americana, and the fact that my family will be here to visit soon. It's annoying because much like the U.S., it's everywhere and it tends to lose the novelty factor after the third repeat of jingle bells at the grocery store. It is somewhat amusing to see all the employees in santa hats though. It's cute because they put up some lights, erect huge Christmas trees, and make at least a token effort to clean things up in the holiday spirit. It's gaudy because it's completely over the top. There's just too much. Everywhere. And over here I don't even see the tiny menorah shoved in the corner (out of politically-correct necessity).
At my English Corner last week, one of my students told me that she knew all about Hanukah. "Oh really" I exclaimed, "how is that?" "Why, from watching 'Friends'," she replied, "Ross is Jewish!" I laughed. So not only is America exporting authentic culture like the television series "Friends," but we're also educating the world on the diversity of religions out there. Too bad she couldn't remember anything except the fact that there's something called a dreidel involved. I promptly informed her that I made it out of clay.
While I have always known that Christmas exists outside of the northern part of America, it still seems odd to see "Merry Christmas" signs up on storefronts beside palm trees. Guangzhou is still hovering between the lower seventies and upper sixties which is just fine by me. I know that the PiA-ers up in Beijing and above the Yangtze River are starting to freeze their butts off so I have no problems with wearing short-sleeved shirts to work everyday.
Besides the sudden influx of Christmas decorations everywhere, it's been business as usual here in GZ. I have experienced some positive repercussions from my track victory, which is pretty funny. The first few days I walked into the teacher's cafeteria, everyone smiled and pointed over to me saying in English, "Superman. You...superman." My friend David would elaborate for me that they were saying how strong I was and about how I impressed all of them with my speed. I was also told that Mr. Huang, my defeated foe in both races, both somewhat distraught that I managed to take him down in both events. I would never say it to him, but there's a good chance he would have beaten me (at least in the 400m) if he didn't smoke. Whatever.
My big prize for winning both races and anchoring the relay was an enormous bag of hand towels. I don't know where they came up with this, but lets just say that I could probably go without washing another towel for the rest of the year. Umm, cool? I guess it's better than nothing. What's funny is that it was sort of a status symbol to receive my enormous bag of towels compared to most other people walking out with only one or two. I'm allowed to be proud, right? Final note on the track meet- I was talking to one of the teachers who doesn't have very good English and I'm pretty sure he said that my times were records for the meet. Now again, I'm not exactly going to tell my grandkids about running a 56 in the quarter, but it is nice to know that I made a statement.
Besides some minor basking, I have been doing quite a bit of reading lately. I just finished Murakami's "A Wild Sheep Chase" which is probably the most creative novel I've read in years. I wasn't blown away by the very end but it's well worth a read if you're looking for a book. In addition, I also finished "Freakonomics" by Levitt. This is another page-turner which brings up some very interesting ideas. Who in the world thinks to connect Roe v. Wade with crime statistics in the '90s? Anyway, the book is basically an economist's attempt to ascribe causation to various correlations in the everyday world. He comes up with some great theories, but as Dr. Fraser old us in Statistics last spring, correlation does not equal causation and there is only one very specific process in which to prove causation. Again though, well worth the read. Anybody have any suggestions for my next read?
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