Adventures in Guangzhou!

I walked into the kitchen and tried not to think about how it was a germ's heaven. There was a big ol' fish flopping around on the uneven concrete floor, waiting to become part of dinner. Wow. David informed me that his Aunt and Uncle both had been preparing food for days to make the night's festival dinner a huge feast. He wasn't kidding--I looked around and saw various meat, fish, and vegetable dishes all sitting around on various counters, waiting to be heated up again for the evening meal.

Most dishes were "covered" by a sort of plastic cage to prevent any (bigger) bugs from hanging out on the food. Of course this doesn't prevent any bacteria from hanging out. I wondered--how long had that chicken dish been sitting out on the table, completely exposed to the elements? Of course, that was the least of my concerns. I was worried a bit more about potentially embarassing moments at dinner a la Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. There is a scene at the very beginning where the female lead doesn't want to eat the bowl of mush in front of her. Jones turns to her and says like, "That's more than these people eat in a week. Eat it." I knew that I would just have to eat everything they put in my bowl in order to save face.

As we chatted over a bowl of noodles with mushrooms, the subject of money came up and they asked me (through David) about my salary. Now I am on the low end of westerner's salaries here in China (some people make ten times what I do per month) but I am not hurting by any means. Given what they make out in the countryside (maybe a tenth of what I do), I felt thoroughly embarassed telling them. I mentioned this to David and he told me that I should not feel that way because a) the subject of money and salary is very common in China and b) they expect an American to making serious money here. That's all well and good but I still felt bad.

After breakfast, David and I took a walk around the town. It was more or less one main street with a couple of sidestreets, all surrounded by sprawling countryside--a far cry from GZ. As we ambled over to his old high school, we chatted about education in the China. I'm not sure how I didn't really know this, but every student starting after primary school has to pay for their schooling. It costs between 3000-4000 kuai a year (upwards of $500) which is an absolute fortune to most, especially those outside the cities. It is a double-edged sword as well because if you can't afford school, it is absolutely impossible to get a good job, which means your kids will also not be able to go to school. A vicious cycle, no? It made me appreciate the American educational system, at least to the point that all kids are entitled to some form of free education. That is an asset that a great deal of Americans overlook.

The Chinese education shortcomings may come in a distant second to the issue of waste management. Walking around the town, I was shocked by the sheer volume of garbage that was everywhere. There were a couple of public wastebaskets, but I don't think anyone would ever use it unless they were standing directly next to it at a time of need. People take their rubbish and simply toss it to the ground. Everyone does it and no one comes around cleaning it up. This is incredible to me--how do people accept living under such conditions? I guess I must be wrong, but it doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to organize *some* system of trash collection or removal. I don't know.

On a more entertaining note, virtually every third store as we walked along sold fireworks. Apparently China goes nuts on New Year's Eve with fireworks and at midnight every single house sends up a huge display. I was getting quite excited! As we reached the high school we found the gates were closed, but David finagled our way in with a little sweet talking to the guard. I think the dude was just mesmerized by the presence of a foreigner, but who knows. David gave me the dime tour and it was interesting. There were mostly new buildings and fields, but he managed to point out a few relics from the past, including the old bronze class bell that still hangs from a tree in the center of campus. Very cool.

We went back to the house and entertained a number of extended family members who were coming over. They seem surprised by me but not entirely overwhelmed. David also told me that to show my respect to the family, I should give an envelope of "lucky money" to his aunt and uncle. I was planning on giving enveloped to all of the children (as is Chinese tradition), but David said it was unnecessary. Okay, I wasn't going to argue.

Once David's brother came over, we all set out to visit the graves of his parents. They loved in a small village, of sorts, right near the town, but it was too far to walk. We flagged a taxi and were off to the middle of the countryside, about 15 minutes away. The village itself consisted of about 80 people who had lived in the same place for about 4 generations. I was looking for a cemetary, but that was foolish of me. We walked along through the fields and eventually came upon two unmarked mounds of earth, covered in wild grass. The two of them lit a bunch of incense and two candles. They stood in silence for a moment and then set fire to a pile of fake money, an old custom that supposedly offers up the currency for use by the deceased in the afterlife. They also lit a whole bunch of firecrackers, both to let their parents know they were there and also to ward off any evil spirits. I was dying to take a picture but I knew that just wouldn't be appropriate.

Next we walked down to the house where David was born.It had been abandoned for several years and was clearly falling apart, but it was still quite a sight. There were three large rooms and a small kitchen, all on the banks of a small stream and endless fields. He pointed out where he used to farm in the summer and where he took his first girlfriend. I was amazed to see the history of his family, but more to note how far he'd come. David was born in a small village of 50 people (at the time), went to high school in the neighboring town, failed the college entrance exam once, aced it the second time 'round, went to Beijing Normal University (his first time leaving Hunan), and graduated to a job at one of the best high schools in the entire country. Incredible.

There were no cabs around so to get back, David hired two motorcycles. I was a little reticent about this but I didn't have much of a choice (don't worry, Anastasia--we only popped a wheelie twice.... mom, that was a joke). Given the economy of the region, motorcycle is easily the most popular form of transportation, with cars and buses a very distant second. I have to admit--it was pretty cool to buzz around the country roads on a bike like that.

After a short nap, I woke up to a house full of people. There were about 20 people crowded into the main room that was set up with two large tables. The big feast began as soon as I got out of bed and it was game on. I was getting all comfortable for a long, Jewish-style feast of magificent proportions. I expected long stories, jokes, political chatter, and general family banter. I was sorely mistaken. I figured for about 3 hours of eating but everyone but David and I was done in about 15-20 minutes. Wow. The food was quite good though which more than made up for the awful baijiu (liuyang he) that I was forced to imbibe.

After the quick dinner, it was back to sitting around playing cards and watching television. CCTV, the national network, does a huge new year's TV special and apparently everyone looks forward to this for months. I thought it was needlessly gaudy and over the top, but waddaya gonna do. Around 11pm we went out and bought some more fireworks to set off. I felt that I should contribute so for 100 kuai (around $12) I purchased one of the largest ones available. Excellent. Midnight rolled around and I was not disappointed. There were fireworks *everywhere*, 360 degrees around. It was wild! The factory down the road put up the best effort and after we finished ours, we stood in awe at the volume of fireworks lighting up the night sky.

After the big display we had a midnight snack of noodles and dumplings. Yum! People began to go to bed though so once again I went through the bedtime rituals. As I sat waiting for my feet to dry I could only think of one thing-- it had been almost 4 days since I showered. Usually this would bother me but no one else had either so it just didn't seem like a problem. I drifted off to bed listening to fireworks off in the distance.